ART 108 Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith has become known as somewhat of a feminist artist. Although she creates in a wide variety of media she is most know for her sculptures. For much of her earlier work she dealt with the topic of feminism and changing the traditional erotic style. However in later years she has focused more on shame. Shame of the body and mind and how people wear their shame. Many of her sculptures depict people in what what would be considered shame full acts such as urinating or being whipped. The idea behind this work is to expose what our society keeps behind closed doors and is considered taboo. Along with this shame subject much of her work deals with relationships with nature. An example of this is her piece "Tied to nature" in which a women is died to the underside of a goat. In all her work seems to delve into our society. The relationship between us as natural creatures and our wanting to hide natural functions and feelings.