William Parker: In your show Sojourn at the Brooklyn Museum you evoke an 18th-century work by the artist Prudence Punderson that emphasizes the "creative rites of passage" rather than the conventional milestones in a woman's life. Do you see any differences between then and now when it comes to a woman's creative will?
KIKI SMITH: I thought her needlepoint, in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society might be the first self-portrait of an American woman creating a work which is an image of herself active.
As an artist, I think creativity is inherent in our species and that it has no gender specificity, but it does have varied cultural manifestations. Certainly, when we think of art history, there has been very little representation of female creativity.
WP: Do you see all creative work as political?
KS: No, not at all. It has as varied expressions as encompasses our consciousness.
WP: How has living in the Hudson Valley influenced your creative outlook?
KS: It makes me very happy to be in the Hudson Valley and to channel my creativity into gardening.
WP: Tell us about the bag you created for Columbia Memorial Hospital.
KS: They asked me to make a baseball cap for their benefit, but I hate men wearing baseball caps, so I proposed to make a bag instead. I invited Anselm Berrigan, who is co-chair of the writing wing at Bard College's summer MFA program to contribute a poem. The gala's theme was "A Night of a Thousand Moons," so I made a drawing of a moon based on a 19th-century lithograph and circled it with Anselm's words. The bags were printed locally at Round Top Knit & Screening.
Click to view a video of Kiki Smith: Lodestar at The Pace Gallery.
|
|
Kiki Smith: Sojourn
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Brooklyn Museum, New York
February 12 through September 12, 2010
Photo by: G. R. Christmas/Courtesy The Pace Gallery
© Kiki Smith, courtesy The Pace Gallery
Kiki Smith: Lodestar
The Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd Street, New York City
April 30 through June 19, 2010
Photo by: G. R. Christmas/Courtesy The Pace Galley
Kiki Smith
Pilgrim, 2007-2010
leaded stained glass with steel frames
installation dimensions variable
Installed in Kiki Smith: Lodestar
The Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd Street, New York City
April 30 through June 19, 2010
Photos by: G. R. Christmas/Courtesy The Pace Gallery
© Kiki Smith, courtesy The Pace Gallery
|
