Kiki Smith

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THIS WEEK on the GWA Podcast, I interview one of the most pioneering artists alive today, Kiki Smith! Born in 1954, in Germany, raised in New Jersey, and now based in the Catskills and New York City, where we are recording today, Kiki Smith is an artist who works across a whole range of mediums ranging from sculpture to printmaking, tapestry to collage. She focuses on subjects of mortality and decay, the body and the earth, what it means to be human and our relationship to nature. She has said: "Our bodies are basically stolen from us, and my work is about trying to reclaim one's own turf, or one's own vehicle of being here, to own it and to use it to look at how we are here.” But it is this notion of collage that seems to be at the heart of her oeuvre – as she works with multiple forms, hybridised figures, and looks at both ancient mythology and contemporary politics, such as tragic events such as the AIDS crisis or the cruel laws around abortion. As a result, she has used materials such as bodily fluids to investigate subjects around death, reproduction and birth. Working indefatigably since the 1970s, Smith, although having briefly studied at Hartford Art School in Connecticut, is for the most part self taught. She has described herself as a “thing-maker” and it is this desire and hunger for experimentation that makes her work so captivating and engaging. Studying the world by living and surrounding herself with nature, she has also since gone on to train as an emergency medical technician. A professor at NYU and Columbia University, Smith has exhibited across the globe – from the Whitney museum to MoMA, The Whitechapel to, most recently, the Seoul Museum of Art in South Korea – and is in collections of some of the most renowned museums in the world. I couldn’t be more excited to be interviewing her today. Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Mikaela Carmichael Artwork by @thisisaliceskinner Music by Ben Wetherfield https://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/ THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY OCULA: https://ocula.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to the Great Woman Artist podcast.
0:05.0	Last week we interviewed the fantastic Brazilian artist Adriana Varajal and this week we chat to Kiki Smith.
0:12.0	But just before we get to this episode, I am delighted to say that this episode is supported by Ocula.
0:18.0	Working with the world's leading galleries, Ocula provides online access to the best of contemporary art.
0:24.7	If you want to learn more about Kiki Smith, view her artworks, or hear about her exhibitions, then do visit Ocilla.com.
0:32.5	I hope you enjoy this episode.
0:43.3	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Woman Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel. Some of you might know me from the Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October
0:48.3	2015 which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
0:55.9	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating female
1:00.9	artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories. And I am so excited to be interviewing
1:06.3	artists on their career or artists, writers, curators or general art lovers on the women artist who means most of them.
1:13.7	What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities,
1:18.7	so you, the listener, can gain a look into the greatest female artists working now or from art history.
1:28.5	I am so excited to say that my guest on the Great Women Artists podcast is one of the most
1:33.4	pioneering artists alive today, Kiki Smith. Born in 1954 in Germany, raised in New Jersey,
1:40.6	and now based between the Catskills and New York City, where we are recording
1:44.3	today, Kiki Smith is an artist who works across a whole range of mediums, ranging from
1:49.3	sculpture to printmaking, tapestry to collage. She focuses on subjects of mortality and decay, the
1:55.2	body and the earth, what it means to be human and our relationship to nature. She has said,
2:00.0	our bodies are basically stolen from us,
2:02.0	and my work is about trying to reclaim one's own turf, or one's own vehicle of being here, to own
2:07.8	it and to use it and to look at how we are. But it is this notion of collage that seems to be at the
	...

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