Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith is an American artist, born and partly raised in Germany to American parents Tony and Jane Smith in 1954 ( TheArtStory, n.d.) . Her father Tony was a minimalist sculptor while her mother Jane was an actress and opera singer. After she was born, her parents moved back to the US where Smith got the opportunity to help her father by making paper models for his sculptures ( TheArtStory, n.d.) . It is these artistic roots that founded the renowned career she boasts today in art. Her art mainly takes a feminist perspective ensuring to focus on the social, cultural and political place of women in today’s world. One of her best works is the ‘Virgin Mary’ developed in 1992.
Virgin Mary (1992)
Smith combines her view on feminism, the role of women in society and her catholic beliefs to develop the Virgin Mary ( TheArtStory, n.d.) . Her desire is for the viewer to view Mary beyond the holy mysticism attached to her but identify her as they would any other woman. She develops the work in wax, standing upright with her feet together. Her arms are by her side, slightly turned upwards. The art is nude with most of her body exposing her muscular skeletal features ( TheArtStory, n.d.) . Her breasts, uterus and hands are visible and Smith uses these to demonstrate to her viewers that Mary is no different from all other women despite the holiness and reference attached to her.
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Robert Gober
Gober is an American artist who was born in Connecticut in 1954 ( Schjeldahl, 2014) . His mother was a nurse and the father was a draftsman. He also lived with his brother and sister. He was raised in a strong catholic home and served as an altar boy at his local church when he was young. He has expressed numerous times that his work in art was influenced by Catholicism to a great extent ( Schjeldahl, 2014) . He has revealed before that his experience as a child and a catholic made him identify visual symbols as transmitters of information and mainly carriers of clues about life. One of his outstanding works is the ‘Half Stone House’ which he developed between 1979 and 1980.
Half Stone House (1979 – 1980)
It is one of his initial works of art and he developed it from material he found on the street with the hope that he would sell it and make some money ( Schjeldahl, 2014) . He eventually describes it as the instance he knew he wanted to be an artist. He demonstrates that he developed it from how he saw his father build their house ( Schjeldahl, 2014) . It is an indication that the inspiration for this sculpture was masculinity and the roles played by men in society. The dollhouse further demonstrates the uncanny as it is a toy used by young girls to engage in what they see happen in their homes ( Schjeldahl, 2014) . Therefore, the artwork’s ambiguity demonstrates masculinity and femininity to some extent.
Maya Lin
Lin is an American architect and sculptor who was born to Chinese immigrants who had fled the communist takeover in china in 1948 ( Kriston, 2007) . She was born in 1959 to a poet mother and also a professor of literature and a ceramicist father who was also the Dean of the School of Art at Ohio University. She followed in her father’s footsteps as she spent most of her time in his studio making art since she was young ( Kriston, 2007) . Her fascination for art was majorly born from the traditional Chinese aesthetics she experienced in her home and the natural surroundings of rural Ohio ( Kriston, 2007) . One of her works that have remained relevant in contemporary art is the ‘Wave Field’ (1995).
The Wave Field (1995)
The Wave Field was designed by the artist in 1995, specifically for the FXB Aerospace Building at the University of Michigan ( Kriston, 2007) . It takes a wavy design to demonstrate turbulence and fluid dynamics while showing the relationship between landscape and art. She develops it on the ground while mimicking the shape of a wave to show the relationship between the various aspects of nature. The artwork is often influenced by the sun at different times of the day and this further compounds the relationship she needs to demonstrate between art and the landscape.
References
Kriston. (2007). The Wave Field . Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://americanart.si.edu/blog/eye-level/2007/06/1191/wave-field.
Schjeldahl, P. (2014). Found Meanings: A Robert Gober retrospective . The New Yorker. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/found-meanings.
TheArtStory. Kiki Smith Art, Bio, Ideas . The Art Story. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/smith-kiki/.
