PHOTOGRAPHS; PRINTS
Smith, Kiki; Universal Limited Art Editions
Germany / U.S. (1954 - )
Puppet
1993 -1994
Photogravure, etching, and aquatint on Gampi paper hinged to Kouzi-Kizuki with collage and string additions
57 3/4 x 29 in. (146.7 x 73.7 cm) image and sheet size; 61 3/8 x 32 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. (155.7 x 81.9 x 3.7 cm) frame size
Gift of John and Shari Behnke
FA 2002.68

Kiki Smith’s assemblage Puppet incorporates images from a number of media—photography, drawing, and printmaking. She also draws upon past work as a source. The photographs and drawings of body parts and references to the senses hail from an earlier print entitled How I Know I’m Here. Smith incorporates new media in the form of a photograph of her niece and etchings based on reproductions in a Dutch magazine article about nudist camps.

Most of Smith’s visual art is related to the body and the natural world. It often has a handmade quality to it. Despite a strong physicality, her work also has a palpable spiritual component. She continually weaves together different components of modern-day life: the internal and external, the physical and spiritual, the personal and collective. She uses a vast array of materials to build her works, from blood to bronze and from glitter to glass. Her art takes the form of drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, books, performance, sound, video, jewelry, and costume design. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.