I first encountered Kiki Smith’s works at the MFA in Boston in the days preceding my first year of college. There is an incredible bronze statue that is part of their permanent collection there — a woman crouched down in an inquisitive, animal-like pose — but she is mounted on the wall. A real predator.
At the time I didn’t know who Kiki Smith was or what her work would come to mean to me in the following years.
Flash forward to 2005, the Whitney mounts a beautiful Smith exhibition — and I “chinatown bus” it to NY with the ultimate art history professor to see it. Being able to see so much of her work in one location, the various mediums, subject matters, histories. A woman showing women as sacrificial yet powerful, maternal and predatory, mere slips of paper and then weighty bronze forms. What was not to love?
A book of her work was one of the few art books (aka HEAVY books) that I brought with me when I made my transatlantic move.
The year when I was starting elementary school, my father declared bankruptcy and our stuff was confiscated. I remember the moment all our belongings were taken away and my mother was crying. We had a very nice house with a swimming pool. That was a turning point. My older brother and I had to stay at our grandparent’s house for the summer. There I was introduced to superstitions. My brother was very loved because he was the first grandchild. They didn’t care much about me and left me alone. I felt very free and without any pressure. I met cats and dogs and chatted with them. One of the staff of the house told my brother not to follow a beautiful rabbit or a beautiful girl at night, because it might be a Jinn (demon).
After I heard this I kept going outside to find rabbits and girls. Workers would find me far off in the terrain and bring me back. They thought I was a sleepwalker. The idea of Jinn became very important to me. Even now (showing an object he made) I call this paint Jinn, it fills the empty paint cans.
just ordered this fantastic 2012 calendar from the recently launched online store, our paper shop.
cannot WAIT for it to arrive and grace my walls with its beauty.
highly recommend checking out their premier collection of paper goods. i, for one, am saving up my pennies to ask them to design some custom stationary for me someday.
a few weeks ago, s. & i made our way to lucerne for fumetto, an international comic art festival.
as well as seeing incredible work by american artist daniel clowes — we spent a lot of time obsessing over the work of german atak (aka hans-georg barbe).
his illustrations, paintings and sculptures pull from so many genres — humor plays a big part throughout and one cannot deny the incredible use of color that gives his work an almost technicolor glory to them.
