What I saw on the road
Kiki Smith is a contemporary American multidisciplinary artist who is a painter, printmaker, photographer and sculptor. The collection of tapestry works is part of her artistic oeuvre. The tapestries are of the collage type and are a logical continuation of the metamorphosis of her works. Kiki experiments with different materials using the same artistic motif. Thus, the same drawing can be found on paper, in bronze, and tapestry. It is exciting to look at these contemporary tapestries in castles and palaces, which have been the original place of exhibition of these works since the Middle Ages. The exhibition "What I Saw on the Road" was organized in Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the seat of the ruling Medici family, the biggest patrons of artists for centuries.
A tapestry of the apocalypse
Her visit to the Chateau d'Angers in France, where the "Apocalypse Tapestry" - a masterpiece of the Middle Ages from 1375, is exhibited - inspired her to create her tapestry collection. After so many years, she exhibited her works precisely in that castle as a contrast to the medieval treasures.
The tapestries contain artistic elements from all her previous periods. As she explains herself, she combined the Middle Ages, hippy art, and the Roaring 20s.
The collage is composed of different media of drawings, prints, and photographs. Everything mixed creates a complex artistic experience. That is above all a challenge for the producer. That's why these tapestries were made by one of the most famous contemporary workshops, Magnolia. This workshop combines the latest technologies with traditional heritage in printing and tapestry.
“Contemporary Conversations: Kiki Smith” by US Embassy Canada is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Early works by Kiki Smith represent a fascination with the human organism. Internal organs, blood vessels, the digestive tract, and endocrinology were the initial motifs in her art. The next recognizable motif is a personal relationship with nature, face-to-face with wild animals and insects. The relationship between a woman and a wolf represents a memory of childhood and the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Through this fairy tale, Kiki portrays her attitude as a woman who is strong and overcomes her fears.
Stars are one of her recognizable motifs in drawings, sculptures, and tapestries. She even tattooed multi-pointed stars on her own body.
A group of sculptures mostly created after 2004. they are two-dimensional and erase the boundary between her drawings, graphics, and sculpture.
The diversity and fruitfulness that is characteristic of her oeuvre means that surprising, new surreal worlds of Kiki Smith can be discovered at each new exhibition.
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