P001 → Shamemail, ongoing
Rites and Rituals, 2024
Iron wire, limpet shell, sea glass, rock, moss
Photos taken by Yin Mei at the James Black Gallery in 2024
Medicine bag on cairn, 2024
Yarn, iron wire, wool, raspberry leaves, valerian, black haw, cramp bark, dandelion roots, red clover petals, rocks, sea heather
Photos taken by Yin Mei at the James Black Gallery in 2024
Z-rod (a warrior’s death), 2024
Yarn, iron wire, twig
Photos taken by Yin Mei at the James Black Gallery in 2024
Shamemail is an ongoing project researching the material culture and cosmological beliefs of Iron Age Celtic and Norse peoples. In particular, Smith aims to reconnect with these cultures which make up their heritage to better understand and cope with their experiences of intergenerational trauma. Smith was inspired after learning their family was cursed in 1525 CE by the Archbishop of Glasgow. The curse, boasting a thousand words, was laid upon them and other Border reiver families for their consistent raiding, pillaging, murder, and rape of villages along and across the Anglo-Scottish Border. Shamemail, comprised of hand-crafted objects and installations, explores how an ancient relative might have coped with the curses their own ancestors had handed down: abuse and endometriosis. By connecting with this imagined person through the research and creation of historically inspired objects, Smith uncovers new ways of healing.