Museum Paper kiki smith alison saar
Museum Paper Although Alison Saar’s (b.1956) work originates from her African American roots and culture, it definitely some kind of connection to that of the work of Kiki Smith (b. ... Alison Saar’s sculptures are, like Smith’s, figurative, narrative, and address contemporary issues of sexual identity and social roles. The two works chosen to be discussed are Saar’s Tinto en Tardo y Suta (1985) and Smith’s Lilith (1994). ... Now, Kiki Smith has reinvented her own vision of Lilith and gives her this sort of contemporary face that can now be reinterpreted as an ideal of female strength and independence. So other than the story behind Lilith, Smith also of course makes this piece of and about the body and makes the viewer question how we experience our body (both male and female). ... Smith once said that she “chose the body as a subject, not consciously, but because it is the form we all share, which we all know from our own experience”. ... Back to the actual sculpture itself, Smith definitely plays with texture in this piece, as Lilith has a bumpy surface when the viewer gets up close. ... It’s like it being in a crowded museum space with works from other artists that do not connect does it no justice. ... It was initially in a show Smith did called All Creatures Great and Small, held at the Kestner Gesellschaft, in 1998. ... Moving on to Alison Saar’s piece, Tinto en Tardo y Suta (1985), we the viewers instantly notice a difference in the way this artist works in comparison to Kiki Smith.