A series of photographs by
KATHRYN SMITH

in response to a story, and part of an ongoing collaborative project with crime writer
MARGIE ORFORD

Developed through a commission by Barry Bester Productions for SABC2’s Right Through The Arts

Trauma Diorama: The Quarry is a limited edition photographic portfolio based on a short film of the same name shot on location in Cape Town in 2008. Drawing on their shared interest in criminology and the ‘aesthetics’ of crime, Smith and Orford explore the space between fact and fiction, text and image in a complex narrative in which murder, mystery, doubling and deceit converge. The exhibition also introduces the figure of emerging Cape Town based artist, Sophie Brown, a character in Margie Orford’s novel-in-development.
Inspired by the recent excavation of skeletal remains in a Quarry on Table Mountain, Brown’s interests, like Smith’s are informed by a process of layering and uncovering. In pursuit of the story behind the excavation, Brown is on a journey of both factual and self-discovery, a journey that may ultimately reveal more than she, or Smith are prepared to admit.
Kathryn Smith is a senior lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch in the department of Visual Arts. Her studio work is informed by the aesthetics of criminology, forensics, the uncanny, body doubles and secret histories. She was the Standard Bank Young Artist in 2004, and took up an Ampersand Foundation fellowship the following year. She has exhibited extensively both locally and internationally, along with developing numerous curatorial projects including The Trinity Session, and more recently serialworks. The exhibition Dada South?, curated with Roger Van Wyk, opens at the ISANG in December.
Margie Orford is an internationally published writer. She is also an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. Margie launches her the latest novel in the series,  Daddy’s Girl published by Jonathan Ball, this month. Film rights to Blood Rose, her second novel, have been optioned and this is currently in developed as a feature film. THE QUARRY, an intricate and unique collabartion will be the fourth in her acclaimed series featuring forensic profiler, Dr Clare Hart. See www.margieorford.com.