In his most recent exhibition Touch and Circumstance (Parkland College, Champaign, IL, 28 September - 26 October 2006), Malcolm Mobutu Smith continues on a theme he describes as "rigmarole involving cup-like vessels that play with graphic cloud images, graffiti, and his African American spirit." The show consists of 17 works: 9 "cups" on wall pedestals with colorful, graphic backsplashes; 4 large sculptural forms on pedestals; and 4 digital prints. The title of Smith's show references a sense of jazz improvisation in which the artist/musician sets up a situation to react against and must be ready to take advantage of circumstances that arise. In ceramics, each touch of the clay reveals new information. Smith looks to see things in each movement within the creative process that set up new possibilities. In essence, making and looking occur at the same time.

Malcolm Mobutu Smith's work shows influences of nature (tree trunks and clouds), contemporary culture (graffiti and jazz), and past cultures rich in ceramic history (Africa, South America, and Asia). He combines elements from these sources with his intuitive process of working with clay and formal aspects that involve the relationships and reversals between two and three-dimensional space.

At first, ancient Chinese ceramics and contemporary graffiti art might appear unrelated, on closer inspection they share common ground. For example, clouds appear in Chinese art and graffiti. Through Smith's hands, these influences come together in works such as Burner, a sculptural form based on intersecting, undulating, cloud-like silhouettes with a ceramic form extending upward into space, mimicking a teapot spout or a trail of smoke. Beneath this projection, the viewer may read layers of recognizable imagery: a flat house superimposed over an interstate symbol, which partially masks the word "Sea" written in graffiti-style lettering. These may be read as symbols, perhaps self-referential, as "Seaone" is Smith's tag. True to its name, a "burner" in graffiti slang refers to one with bright colors and good style.

The influence of graffiti reappears throughout show. At times, graffiti appears in an overt manner, such as a word or symbol, other instances are more subtle, the play between two and three dimensional space for example. While graffiti often gets removed from subway cars or buildings, Smith incorporates his into a medium (clay) that survives millennia. In Mochespoke, the blue form emerging from the vessel pays homage to South American Moche codices which use a graphic symbol near the figure's mouth, referred to as a "speech scroll" by archaeologists, to indicate the figure was talking. Smith recreates this flat symbol in three dimensions and has it emerge spout-like out of the vessel. Its color sets it apart from the light, cloud-like body of the vessel. Smith further plays with space and movement through two light-colored, comma-shaped, flat swirls which emanate upward and a turquoise, complementary, swirl near the bottom of the cup. The black line emphasizing the edges of these shapes simultaneously reiterates their flatness and pulls the eye forward.

These vessels sit on wall pedestals with backsplashes mediating the space between wall and the work, investigating real and implied space. In some works, this relationship seems arbitrary, as if the backsplash could be switched from one work to another. In others, the juxtaposition is extremely effective, creating a tight visual context where and the backsplash becomes an integral part of the work.

In particular, Angulardystopia succeeds by using the backsplash to manipulate reversals and disintegrations of two and three dimensional spaces. When viewed from the left, the red swash of the backsplash reads as a graphic graffiti, continuing onto the teapot silhouette resting on the pedestal. Shifting to the right, a crusty tree trunk cup attached to the reverse of the flat cutout counters the vibrant movement of the other side, perhaps reflecting the anti-utopia referenced in the title.

The best graffiti appears to lift off the wall. Through the use of backsplashes, Malcom Mobutu Smith furthers the interplay of real and implied space by having his three dimensional objects directly associated with a two dimensional wall. Smith works within a complex set of parameters, often reversing previous assumptions. The strength of Smith's work lies in its sense of dynamism and complexity of surface and form, his pulling together of disparate source material, and the reversals of expectations in terms of two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. It will be interesting to see where these ideas lead.