As a young boy Roch Smith used to take apart his mother’s wooden clothes pegs and glue them together to create various objects like ships and cars. Recalling those early creative impulses, the Toronto-based sculptor continues to ‘play’ with dynamic form in this imaginative piece that is reminiscent of the wooden stacking game called ‘Jenga.’

Here a bronze figure perches on top of an impossibly tall tower of uniformly stacked wooden pieces. In his hands he is holding one final piece of the ‘game’ and is bending over to place it. Will it topple the tower and end the game?

“My hope is to not live in nostalgia but rather have created some sculptural images that spark a memory in the viewer about their own past and which speaks to maintaining a playful identity as we get older.” Roch Smith

He received a BFA (Honours Sculpture) from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (ECIAD - 1997) and an MFA from York University (2003). A teacher as well as an artist, he has taught classes at the University of Waterloo, ECIAD and York University. He currently manages and operates the bronze and aluminum foundry at York University. Roch Smith has exhibited throughout Canada and in the US. His work is included in private, corporate and museum collections.