Mikah Smillie
she/her
Surviving Time
My work explores how we endure, spend, and reclaim time through a trilogy of pieces rooted in the spectacle of 1930s American dance marathons—events where people danced to the point of collapse for public entertainment.
A data-printed 'Survival Dress' reimagines the numbered uniforms worn by marathon dancers. Both costume and armour, it exposes statistics of contemporary female endurance.
'Surviving Time' is a series of conceptual shoes inspired by dance marathon star Alma Cummings’ worn-through soles. Each shoe serves as a metaphor for the passage of time, asking how we walk, run, or dance through our own lives.
The final piece shifts from survival to agency. 'Reclaiming Time' consists of 24 tiles one for each hour—echoing the marathons’ relentless rhythm and time pressure. Globally, we spend an average of 45 hours online each week. This piece asks: What would you do if you reclaimed 24 of those hours?
Reclaiming Time
Survival Dress
Surviving Time