The work of American artist Kiki Smith, born 1954, is a meditation on the body. Smith observes every aspect of corporal materiality and the conditions that shape our life on earth: physically, spiritually, and politically, but also with regard to emotive categories like control and disgust. Her earlier work often fragmented the body into organs, fluids, and senses. Later, she depicted it as an envelope. Yet in her most recent art she has taken a step back to evoke mankind’s relationship with its environment. Smith uses a wide range of materials and techniques, with a particular interest in the fragility and expressive potential of paper and its resemblance to human skin.
This book, published to coincide with an exhibition at Musée Cantonal des Beaux-arts in Lausanne, Switzerland, offers a survey of some forty years of Kiki Smith’s art making, examining in particular the sensory dimension of her output. Richly illustrated, the book confronts the reader with their own body and invites reflection on their role within the entire world.
