# Project Description Portfolio of Works Marnie Smith Summary Final work I'm Marnie Smith, a London-based artist working with video, sculpture, and text. I recently graduated from Chelsea College of Arts, where my practice began to focus on the emotional and physical tensions between purity and dirtiness, sexuality and shame, tenderness and the grotesque. My work often centres the body—sometimes fragmented or obscured—as a way to explore desire, discomfort, and the politics of looking. I’m interested in the quiet power of vulnerability, and how intimacy can hold both softness and violence at once. I'm Marnie Smith, a London-based artist working with video, sculpture, and text. I recently... College Chelsea College of Arts Course BA (Hons) Fine Art Graduation year 2025 ​​ The following works form part of a broader exploration into intimacy, discomfort, and the messy entanglement of desire and identity. These are separate projects—self-contained yet thematically interconnected. Across video, photography, sculpture and text, I explore the tension between purity and the grotesque, innocence and sexuality, tenderness and violence. These works are unified by an interest in the body—how it’s looked at, interpreted, obscured, and protected—and by a desire to challenge the binaries we attach to vulnerability and control. Final work Limerence Limerence is a stop-motion film capturing a tender yet unsettling kiss between two girls in a park. As dandelion seeds drift between their mouths, the kiss becomes increasingly messy—almost grotesque—but never loses its softness. Their laughter and genuine affection hold the tension between beauty and discomfort, obsession and intimacy. This piece explores the desire to dissolve boundaries with another person: to be so entangled, so in love, that you might consume each other. The work plays with what we label as ‘dirty’ or ‘pure,’ challenging where we draw those lines in romantic and bodily experience. View Gallery View Gallery View Gallery Scratching Scratching , a friend’s bare back fills the frame—red, raised markings spell out the cryptic phrase: “his ears became as big as handlebars.” The effect mimics the look of scratched skin, though the marks have been staged. Shot vertically in a tight frame that recalls phone footage, the work feels immediate and intrusive, yet deeply considered. Her face is hidden; she’s turned away, offering only partial access. The ambiguity of the text—partially illegible—acts as a protective layer, allowing the piece to gesture toward themes of sexual violence without demanding full disclosure. There’s a voyeurs’ gaze at play, but also moments of quiet resistance: a single hand resting on her shoulder reads as either self-soothing or a subtle reclaiming of bodily autonomy. The video holds its power in what it withholds. Share this project ​​The following works form part of a broader exploration into intimacy, discomfort, and the messy entanglement of desire and identity. These are separate projects—self-contained yet thematically interconnected. Across video, photography, scu... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Body Gender Sexuality Art FineArt Video Sculpture Masculinity Femininity Sex Sexuality