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August 25, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Smith explores body’s beauty, filth

Smith explores body’s beauty, filth

By Caitlin Topham | For the Thresher

Both delicate and heavy, the sculptures emerge from every corner in bronze, wax, plastic and paper. In the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston’s latest retrospective, “Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980-2005,” organic sculptures of the human form gain new life through innovative installations.

“Gathering” explores the body’s form, texture, organs, fluids and temporality. While most of it is beautiful, Smith unabashedly reveals the less tasteful sides of the human body as well. Some of her pieces are deeply disturbing and almost inappropriate. In Untitled (1987-1990), for example, Smith has plated the inside of 12 glass water jugs with silver. On the outside, each is etched with the name of a bodily fluid — mucus, pus and diarrhea are among the silvered menu. The words evoke images of the actual substances, as well as a disgusted fear that the fluids are actually in the jugs.

But sometimes this manipulation of the unknown works well. One of the best pieces in the show is Skins. From across the gallery, its two aluminum wall panels appear to be simple rectangles. But body parts emerge as the viewer approaches the sculpture: Smiths casts models of skin, organs and limbs, cuts them into smaller squares and rearranges them. Like a puzzle asking to be solved, the panels playfully demand that viewers try to identify each body part.

Upside-Down Body with Beads is equally piecemeal, though for different reasons. The sculpture’s seams remain visible. The fragmented body seems cast before the artist could finish it, and this unfinished quality adds a unique texture to the figure. The unexpectedly beautiful result reveals something of the artist’s process: Smith is defiant in pronouncing it a finished piece.

Smith’s work can be pretty, too. Untitled (1992) has unrealistically long arms and folds in on itself on the floor in a yoga pose, poised to slide out and lay on the floor. The releasing tension in the figure’s posture gives way to gentle, soothing curves along the impossible arms, back and legs.

In the center of the gallery is a smaller room dubbed Wunderkammer. This cabinet of curiosities is a welcome break from the larger exhibit — it is filled with objects Smith “selected expressly for this exhibition as a unique way of framing the eclectic yet interconnected threads of her work,” according to the wall label. Inside, vitrines display pieces, that represent different stages in Smith’s work. The body is still central and the space is interesting to view. It is a biography of Smith’s work as she chooses to tell it, through found sculpture instead of words.

Another area set off from the exhibit is hidden behind a temporary wall. Entering this smaller gallery, viewers happen on Daughter, one of the creepier pieces in “Gathering”. A small sculpture, Daughter resembles Little Red Riding Hood … with a beard. The initial reaction is disturbance, especially when the automated sound track kicks in and the doll-like little girl begins emitting haunting melodies and dog-yelps. The piece insinuates that Daughter could be the offspring of the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood herself. This potential is fascinating, and contemplating the consequences it implies will root viewers to the spot, though only until the soundtrack becomes overbearing.

Smith’s displays are usually integral to her pieces, and “Gathering” proves no exception. Figures hang from, crawl down, or sit on the gallery walls. Defying gravity, such as in Lilith, where a female figure crawls down the wall, the figures engage the viewer in new and intriguing ways. The success of these pieces and of Daughter illustrate Smith’s talent for using the space she’s given fully and creatively.

The least successful piece in “Gathering” can be found on the floor. Dewbow, an uncharacteristically unorganic construction of raindrop-shaped fumed glass, lays near the entrance to the Daughter room. The piece appears machine-made and shows no sign of the human touch, unlike many of Smith’s other pieces. The CAMH’s installation of Dewbow is also distracting and unattractive: The wood stripping that surrounds the piece, protecting it from disturbances like visitors’ feet, restricts the piece, preventing it from defining the space surrounding itself.

Overall, the breadth of work is overwhelming for a one-room gallery. “Gathering” is incredibly varied, and while her sculpture steals the show, a delightfully detailed array of prints and drawings make a fine supporting cast. Smith has paid a lot of attention to both the body and to space around it, and the provocative results should not go underappreciated.

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