 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
This new body of work emerges from a series of photographs of early cloth gas masks that I have been taking in European and American military history museums. I am struck by the haunting, almost ghoulish quality of these masks and their visual equivalence to other kinds of masks, hoods, costumes, and veils. I am also attracted to their handmade quality, which seems to suggest simultaneously a level of loving care as well as functional inadequacy. I have begun to see these objects as remnants of an as-yet unwritten history of needlework. The repeated thought that “someone made this” has compelled me to recreate many of these masks, and to expand my search to kindred forms found on the Internet. I have used these out-of-focus, poorly lit, and pixilated images as the source material for making my own, flawed “authentic reproductions,” using art supplies found at local fabric/craft retail stores and recycling centers. In my version, each accessory is plainly stitched, unspoiled, stain-free, and ready to be used. I’m thinking of this process as a kind of performance, akin to that of the seamstresses who supply the material culture for the field of Living History, a cultural phenomenon as well as a popular pastime in which the “art” of war is perpetually reenacted. This form of making-as-performance in my studio is then followed by the performance of the articles in a series of staged photographs, both portraits and tabletop still lifes, in which things that perhaps we would not think of as having been made by someone are caught in the act of their making and wearing. This handle-ability, or materiality-as-process, is emphasized by the hands as they engage the provisional immediacy of props to demonstrate acts of survival, cruelty, modesty, disguise, or fetish. I have chosen the title Needle Work to suggest a kind of creative process that might get under the skin: to goad and to provoke as well as to labor over lovingly, and with precision.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Needle Work 2010 installation view
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Needle Work 2010 Steel, Plexiglass, aida cloth, museum board, printed research imagery
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (01) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (02) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (13) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (14) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (04) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (05) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (10) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (09) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (08) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled (06) 2009 archival inkjet print on exhibition fiber paper 20x16"
|
"Allison Smith: Needle Work," Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Photo credit Allison Smith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
