Ellen Smee

This mixed media collage is part of an ongoing exploration into working-class identity, specifically the internalised shame often tied to class, taste, and aesthetics. By using found materials and leaving visible the tape, rough edges, and hand-cut elements, I aim to celebrate what’s often dismissed as “low quality” or “messy.” These choices aren’t accidental, they speak to a DIY resilience and pride that resists polished perfection. My practice plays with humour, personal narrative, and visual storytelling, while remaining open to interpretation. I want the work to act as a vessel, not to dictate meaning, but to invite it.

This piece features my dad and forms part of a wider exploration into working-class shame, masculinity, and personal history. It reflects on how class identity is inherited, shaped, and sometimes silently carried.

This Risograph print combines an image of my house with a scanned passport photo and a Welsh dragon. The house became a conceptual anchor in this project, a site tied to where I grew up and the cultural values, pride, and class-based shame woven into that space. The layering of images is integral to the process and concept, reflecting how identity is built from overlapping memories, histories, and inherited perceptions. Through print and composition, I explore how these elements coexist and shape my sense of self.

This experimental piece is a spliced risograph print combining photos of my full body, headshot, and fragmented images of my house. The ink smudges and imperfect registration, unintentional aspects of the print process, became vital to the visual storytelling, emphasising the messy, intertwined relationship between identity and place. Conceptually, it explores how the house and I merge into one being, reflecting layered personal and spatial histories. To me, it also speaks to how shame is ingrained and learned, but how we use that shame can become a source of power and resilience.

My creative process involves a lot of play, which helps ideas flow naturally and keeps the work authentic. I intentionally embrace a messy, imperfect aesthetic as a rejection of the polished, sometimes rigid standards of the industry. This approach makes room for honest, raw expressions that reflect real experiences rather than curated perfection.

This piece is an experimental collage made from the top sections of my forehead, arranged into unusual spherical shapes. Created from leftover risograph prints, some marked with pink ink resembling an exclamation point, it reflects my unapologetically loud, authentic self. I’m committed to reducing waste in my process, using found and leftover materials wherever possible. This work also connects to my research on code-switching, using visual storytelling to explore identity, voice, and the ways we navigate different social spaces.