Kiki Smith: I Am a Wanderer

"I do see a path of subject matter in my work and humans in new configurations, emphasising friendship, survival, and – I went from the microscopic organs to systems protection. Her modern ‘bestiary’ (a medieval compendium of beasts) to bodies to the religious body to cosmologies [...] comes to life, to convey a sincere and timely message. Smith says: ‘We are interdependent with the natural world... our identity is completely But that’s only in retrospect. At the time it’s more attached to our relationship with our habitat and animals. I make things that certain materials interest you, and you go in from images that catch my attention.’ In the manner of a subtle, poetic that direction." environmentalist, Smith communicates through art and beauty to remind – Kiki Smith, 1997 us that it is mutual respect between humanity and nature that will secure the survival of both, and the planet as a whole. This exhibition’s selection of works was generated in close collaboration with the artist, and in dialogue with the city of Oxford, its medieval heritage, historic museum collections and strong tradition of fantastical literature, exemplified by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll. The city is the perfect host for an exhibition so rich in storytelling and mythology, in which Kiki Smith unfurls an entire world populated by beings of different cultures in time and space, foreign as well as familiar ones: female figures in particular, hybrid creatures, animals of all kinds, plants and heavenly bodies in a variety of forms and materials. , 1999. The interdisciplinary and collaborative spirit of Smith’s work across a rich variety of media, printmaking in particular, creates an interesting parallel with the arts and science context of Oxford’s renowned research culture. The political urgency of the artist’s work is equally expressed through a visual and material solidarity with marginalised beings and the natural environment. Smith continually portrays the connection between animals Untitled (Daughter) , Kiki Smith Courtesy the Artist and Pace Gallery. Kiki Smith’s childhood in New Jersey was shaped by the intellectual and artistic milieu of her parents, opera singer Jane Lawrence and architect, painter, and sculptor Tony Smith, an important figure of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Instead of the Minimal emphasis on the reduction of forms, the asceticism of the materials, and the banishment of emotion, historical context, and pathos, in Kiki Smith’s art feelings come to the fore: emotional states such as fear, dissonance and trauma. Her inspiration has always derived from daily life and everyday experiences. As the artist explains: ‘I moved to the Lower East Side of New York City in , 1998. Courtesy Pace Gallery. 1976. The late 1970s and 80s was a moment of romantic enthrallment with sex, drugs and rock and roll, but also the time of the United States’ covert and overt military aggression in Central America. I began using images of Crashed Bat Crashed bodies in an effort to find a language for my own discomfort and anxiety.’ , Smith’s early artworks were influenced by the incredible political, social and cultural changes of this time, as shaped by the AIDS crisis, discourse on Kiki Smith Photograph Barratt, by Tom courtesy the Artist and Pace Gallery. sexual identity and social gender, and feminist activism. She focuses on I am a Wanderer a am I This exhibition is curated by Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Petra by curated is exhibition This Kiki Smith Cover images: Image courtesy of Universal Limited Art Editions. appeal for action. for appeal Smith: Kiki and hope in a dystopian world, communicating both poetic sensibility and and sensibility poetic both communicating world, dystopian a in hope and , of ‘resurrection’ and ‘regeneration’, creating visions of beauty, reconciliation reconciliation beauty, of visions creating ‘regeneration’, and ‘resurrection’ of II Pool Tears of Kiki Smith heritage of our collective memory. The artist herself speaks of the possibilities possibilities the of speaks herself artist The memory. collective our of heritage she roams through lands and historical epochs, collecting and preserving the the preserving and collecting epochs, historical and lands through roams she of a cultural anthropologist anthropologist cultural a of wanderlust the With cultures. foreign through her and space, making ‘contact’ on a decades-long imaginary journey that takes takes that journey imaginary decades-long a on ‘contact’ making space, and , , 2000. Published by Universal Limited Art Editions. ©Kiki Smith and Universal Limited Art Editions. Sky ‘I am a wanderer,’ Kiki Smith says. And indeed, she is a wanderer through time time through wanderer a is she indeed, And says. Smith Kiki wanderer,’ a am ‘I , 2012. Jacquard, 2012. tapestry ©Kiki Smith. Courtesy Timothy London/New Taylor, and Magnolia York Editions. cast in bronze with piercing ruby eyes. eyes. ruby piercing with bronze in cast including a glass frog, a porcelain dead cat, a silver shooting star and a bat bat a and star shooting silver a cat, dead porcelain a frog, glass a including A collection of hybrid creatures and natural phenomena are also displayed displayed also are phenomena natural and creatures hybrid of collection A mâché, resin, cast silver and gold leaf – demonstrating her constant curiosity. curiosity. constant her demonstrating – leaf gold and silver cast resin, mâché, material experimentation, from bronze, plaster, glass and porcelain to papier papier to porcelain and glass plaster, bronze, from experimentation, material dissected or disembodied – can be seen in this abundance of Kiki Smith’s Smith’s Kiki of abundance this in seen be can – disembodied or dissected objects, often cast) around 1980. Compelling evocations of the body – often often – body the of evocations Compelling 1980. around cast) often objects, animal. The artist began making these multiples (limited series of identical identical of series (limited multiples these making began artist The animal. curiosities’ containing a myriad of forms and materials, both human and and human both materials, and forms of myriad a containing curiosities’ In the Middle Galleries we encounter a Wünderkammer, ‘a cabinet of of cabinet ‘a Wünderkammer, a encounter we Galleries Middle the In the afterlives of her sculptural practice. practice. sculptural her of afterlives the visual markers indicate Smith’s investigative use of photography to interrogate interrogate to photography of use investigative Smith’s indicate markers visual objects or people uncertain. The blurry depths of field and other snapshot-like snapshot-like other and field of depths blurry The uncertain. people or objects Their perspectives and extreme close-ups render the sculptures’ status as as status sculptures’ the render close-ups extreme and perspectives Their sculptures from the 1990s are captured by Smith’s photography in her studio. studio. her in photography Smith’s by captured are 1990s the from sculptures a life-size sculpture made of beeswax in 1991. Some of these full-scale wax wax full-scale these of Some 1991. in beeswax of made sculpture life-size a gampi paper in 1987, and finally reproduces the human figure in its entirety in in entirety its in figure human the reproduces finally and 1987, in paper gampi focus on the body’s outer appearance, initially through soft materials such as as such materials soft through initially appearance, outer body’s the on focus organs and then casting sculptures of them in bronze. She later returns to a a to returns later She bronze. in them of sculptures casting then and organs Technician alongside her sister Beatrice in 1985), first drawing individual individual drawing first 1985), in Beatrice sister her alongside Technician human anatomy (using knowledge from training as an Emergency Medical Medical Emergency an as training from knowledge (using anatomy human arms and fingers. By the mid-1980s, the artist seemed to dissect the entire entire the dissect to seemed artist the mid-1980s, the By fingers. and arms Her first sculptures were dedicated to parts of the body such as disembodied disembodied as such body the of parts to dedicated were sculptures first Her her work as well as elements of religion. religion. of elements as well as work her Smith began to incorporate history, mythology, legends and fairy tales into into tales fairy and legends mythology, history, incorporate to began Smith and memory, as well as the ecological crisis of the planet. In the early 1990s, 1990s, early the In planet. the of crisis ecological the as well as memory, and reanimation, wholeness and fragmentation, birth, sexuality, gender, identity identity gender, sexuality, birth, fragmentation, and wholeness reanimation, Her works tackle the subjects of age, dying and death, pain and healing, healing, and pain death, and dying age, of subjects the tackle works Her humiliation, or the constraints of shame, engaging with the human condition. condition. human the with engaging shame, of constraints the or humiliation, to the world. The artist investigates the human body without fear of taboos, taboos, of fear without body human the investigates artist The world. the to content and meaning, on existential questions and answers in direct response response direct in answers and questions existential on meaning, and content – Kiki Smith, 1997 Smith, Kiki – of craft and decorative arts." arts." decorative and craft of body, then I become more overt about languages languages about overt more become I then body, "The first works are based on the facets of the the of facets the on based are works first "The "I do see a path of subject matter in my work and humans in new configurations, emphasising friendship, survival, and – I went from the microscopic organs to systems protection. Her modern ‘bestiary’ (a medieval compendium of beasts) to bodies to the religious body to cosmologies [...] comes to life, to convey a sincere and timely message.

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