What is Love? is a limited edition, cut out print. The print consists of 21 people’s Hand written answers to the title question. The question was put out via the What is Love- Artwork ? Facebook page. People were invited to post their answers on Facebook or email them to the artist. 25 answers were then randomly drawn from a hat and handwritten by participants, to possibly be included in the artwork.

Jenny Smith is an artist whose practice explores the relationship between traditional methodologies and new technology and this work juxtaposes these two elements on many levels. Jenny’s work interprets the act of handwriting as a form of drawing, and celebrates this activity. Yet she also uses social media and the new technology of laser cutting to realise the work.

This artwork celebrates chance and accident: both in the random selection of answers: drawn by hand from a hat, it also celebrates the random nature of social interaction via Facebook. This polytheist narrative is drawn

from “friends “ on Facebook and the artist’s email address book. Some participants are fellow artists in Edinburgh, others are family, friends or professional acquaintances, it also includes people from Europe and the USA.

The specifics could be seen as less important than it’s collective significance as a reflection on a universal human question, asked by romantic poets and philosophers throughout time. From a distance it echoes the delicacy and mystery of Japanese calligraphy. On closer inspection the viewer is invited to search for, and attempt to decipher, a variety of answers to the question, and may also be prompted to reflect on what their own answer would be?