ROY presents: Kaitlyn Jo Smith

Kaitlyn Jo Smith is an interdisciplinary artist who’s taken a special interest in the lived experiences of the American working class; past, present, and future. Through 3D scanning and printing, the use of automatic equipment, and the utilization of computer systems that learn and adapt without instruction, Smith’s artworks combine physical aspects of industrialization with concepts surrounding the nonphysical realities of the working class.

Within this series of works, Smith engages largely with the high-speed industrial transformations that have taken place throughout America’s history. First there was the Industrial Revolution, which generated an intense need for factory workers. Not too much later, however, industries progressively replaced humans with machines, allowing automation to overtake the labor force. Finally we reach the present, where we are witnessing the swift deindustrialization of America characterized by the transportation of factories overseas as well as the subsequent loss of millions of manufacturing jobs. Smith explores this narrative through her multimedia artworks which highlight themes of abandonment, loss, consumption, capitalism and its agendas, as well as physical and nonphysical reminders of the past. She further toys with concepts such as ‘the American dream’, generational and familial inheritances, and power structures.

Get to know Kaitlyn during our ROY talks now available on ROY’s YouTube Channel