Yasmin Smith works with ceramic and glaze technologies to produce large-scale sculptural installations that investigate particular sites through extensive field research, community collaboration and studio experimentation. Her practice brings scientific and artistic concerns together, allowing ecological forms of intelligence to be expressed through the aesthetic outcomes of ceramic glazes. She begins by researching the history of a site and collecting samples of plant and geological materials. She casts ceramic replicas of plants and related forms, then burns the original wood to produce ash glazes for the sculptures. The colours and textures that emerge in these glazes reveal what the plant absorbed during its lifetime. In this way, the work reflects both the ecological and human histories of a place as elements present in the water, soil and air are taken up by the plant and retained as a kind of material memory or archive. Smith also works with rock, coal, salt and wild clay as part of an expanded material investigation that interrogates labour, extraction, colonisation and political ecology. A recent development in her practice involves reverse engineering glaze materials, enabling the production of large-scale works from substances that are otherwise available only in very small quantities.

Smith has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2025-2026) and Mosman Art Gallery (2023). She has exhibited in major group exhibitions including Lagos Biennial (2024), the Asia Pacific Triennial (2021-2022), Cosmopolis #2.0 and #1.5 Centre Pompidou and Chengdu (2018 and 2019), Biennale of Sydney (2018).