Diana Baker Smith carries an acute attention to ephemeral, invisible or hidden histories. Whether it is tracing the movements of a public artwork through her hometown of Sydney, or piecing together a performance history from deteriorating and lost archives, Baker Smith pulls back layers of history to explore the forgotten.
In conversation with writer and curator Amelia Wallin, Baker Smith reveals her research-based methodologies as she prepares to present a site-specific work for Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), as part of the gallery’s annual Judy Wheeler Commission. PICA sits on the unceded cultural and spiritual homelands of the Whadjuk Nyoongar People. Baker Smith’s commission, a graphic score and chorographical piece titled responds to PICA’s colonial architecture and history as one of Perth’s first schools, and
