| January 28, 2010 |  |
 Allison SmithUntitled, from Needle Work, 2009 Archival inkjet prints on exhibition fiber paper, 22 x 16" Courtesy of the artist | Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum presents February 5 - April 19, 2010 |
| Share this announcement on: Facebook | Delicious | Digg | Twitter | | |
| Allison Smith creates large-scale multimedia installations that critically engage popular forms of historical reenactment — including sculpture, fabrics, ceramics and other traditional crafts — to redo, restage and refigure our sense of collective memory. Frequently drawing on "living history" museums, battlegrounds and, most recently, the Internet, Smith explores notions of gender, culture and authenticity through craft and performance and the connections of both to war, violence and the construction of national identity. This spring the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will showcase the artist's most recent project, Allison Smith: Needle Work. The installation centers on the recreation of European and American gas masks from World War I and World War II. Appearing crudely fashioned, from textiles such as canvas and twill tape as opposed to the more familiar industrial black rubber, these early masks — which Smith first encountered while visiting the Musée de l'Armée in Paris — struck her as meticulously, even lovingly, crafted, yet also functionally inadequate to their task. The exhibition also includes staged photographs in which masks are worn, held or otherwise positioned as props, variously evoking survival, cruelty, modesty, camouflage and disguise. Representing another tradition of wartime needlework are four large silk parachutes — printed by Washington University's Island Press — suspended from the ceiling. Smith developed Needle Work in fall 2009, while serving as the inaugural Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist in Washington University's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. During a series of campus visits, Smith also participated in the interdisciplinary studio "Past Perfect, Present Tense," which investigated the use of historical research as a strategy within contemporary artistic practice. The studio was led by Lauren Adams, assistant professor of painting in the Sam Fox School, who also serves as curator for the exhibition. Support for Allison Smith: Needle Work was provided by Bunny and Charles Burson, the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Art Endowment Fund, the Sam Fox School's College and Graduate School of Art, and members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. A fully illustrated color catalog will accompany the exhibition. The catalog includes an essay by Wendy Vogel and interviews with both Smith and Adams. Allison Smith Smith is an assistant professor of sculpture at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She has exhibited in venues throughout the United States and abroad, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; the Arario Gallery in Cheonan, South Korea; and the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, New York. In 1999 she earned an MFA from the Yale University School of Art and in 1999–2000 she participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. Public Opening Celebration Friday, February 5, 7-9 pm Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum The Kemper Art Museum at Washington University is part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, and features cutting-edge special exhibitions, exceptional educational resources, and an outstanding collection of 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century European and American art –a stimulating and unique site to experience art, culture, and education in St. Louis. FREE and open to the public 11-6 every day except Tuesday, open 11-8 on Friday. 314.935.4523 http://kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu | |
No comments:
Post a Comment