“Objects are very vulnerable when people have forgotten their stories,” says artist Bob and Roberta Smith, when asked to speak on art and advocacy. Known for his use of slogans and campaign tactics, Smith explains that when artists extend the life of an artwork through storytelling, “that story can be the artwork.”
Bob and Roberta Smith, also known as Patrick Brill, is a British contemporary artist working in text, persona, and public space. He is a trustee for the National Campaign for the Arts, and an Associate Professor at London Metropolitan University. Smith’s work is part of the Center-funded Framing Fraktur at the Free Library of Philadelphia, which exhibits contemporary text-based art alongside historical Pennsylvania German fraktur.
