Kiki Smith
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill
September 23 - November 25 2010
http://www.lorcanoneill.com/site/index.php

by Kirila Cvetkovska

Kiki Smith’s contemplation of the cycle of life evokes creative inspiration through the walls of Lorcan O’Neill Gallery (Rome). Her fragile works of art, placed over one room, generate a female perception intensely engaged in diverse experiences: from freedom and birth to domestic life and death. These pieces swing rhythmically in the gallery space, conveying instances of thrill, disturbance and motivation.
Classified as a feminist artist, Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954, in Nuremberg, Germany) incorporates social and political issues in her art, presented through female figures as metaphors. In addition, she integrates issues of liberty, nourishment and fate that reflect daily duties and her own experience as a woman. Although Smith’s first works were screenprints on dresses or shirts, she is most famous for her sculptures (in aluminum, bronze, steel etc.). However, she uses variety of media: drawings, prints or installations, creating self- portraits, nature- inspired works, or fable scenes.
The delicacy of Smith’s art dominates the small exhibiting room at Lorcan O’Neill Gallery, where the sculptures and drawings are randomly placed. The space is filled with sensitivity, but there is no clear narrative inherent in the actual exhibition. As one enters the gallery, they face the Annunciation (2008), a sculpture of a child-like figure seated on a chair, with his right arm captured in a moment of waving. This sculpture seems as a “welcome” sign for the viewer, but also as a metaphor for self- importance and steady confrontation with the particular audience.
Kiki Smith represents inspiring female figures, as reflected through the Singer (2008) sculpture, in which a woman is frontally positioned and stands confident, while holding flowers with her left hand and waving with the right one. This is also depiction of pride of being a woman, with the eagerness for sharing creation and knowledge, in a stance of universal time and space.
In the right corner of the room, there is Messenger III (2007) sculpture, as an illustration of female independence and free will. It is attached to the ceiling and comprises of a bird placed between thin, crossing pieces of wood with few stars on them. The forms are painted in sparkly silver and gold, displaying the joys of travelling and the glow of the female’s personality.
The decadence of women’s life stages continues in Smith’s drawings which are mostly huge papers. They exhibit figures drawn in dark ink and highlights of blue, green, red and glittering materials attached to the paper. For instance, Visitation of bird I (2007) shows an old woman, seated in a chair, waving to a bird that flies towards her. In the space between them, there are straight, perplexed, glittering lines attached. The drawing is made in natural hues of blue and brown, exposing a certain rite of passage, as well as a cherished habit of the elderly female figure.
Kiki Smith removes both the divine and the male from her art creations, exhibiting feminist aspects in her works through the images of women accompanied by birds, flowers or glitter. She presents the feminine experience by constant usage of metaphors, illustrating various life stages, but also invoking creative inspiration. Smith touches upon the subject of intimacy and devotion, employing simplicity as an effective way for rendering social provocations.