Kiki Smith Mythological spectrum of the Exhibition Woven Worlds after visiting the exhibition
It was a privilege to visit the exhibition of Kiki Smith in Montenegro in January of 2025 and journey the world from creation to ascension in the “Woven Worlds” which was the title of the exhibition.
Kiki Smith is an artist who goes deep into the world of mythology, connectivity of everything between the universe outside and universe within, a wonderment of this experience of being a human, interpreting and exposing a lot of societal dissonances. She places many question marks about the way the world is, and in some aspects a state of women in it. One of the most memorable of her sculptures is the series where she portrays women about to be burnt at the stake with the title: “Why have you forsaken me?”
Emerging from initially one would say religious background many pieces are alchemized into the material which speaks much more universal language, a modernity of mythologies and stories. Idea of progress, let’s start:
Underground 2011 (drawing and tapestry)
A primordial human is dreaming, unaware, unconscious, still living but entangled by the branches which are really the roots of the trees above, his position is awkward, if he wasn’t dreaming he would be in pain, he has twisted himself between the structure that holds him and the dream that makes him unaware of this structure. A human has created the coping mechanism underground out of a dream and now is interacting and going into so many of the rabbit holes. Rabbits are observing in wonderment because they only appear to share the same trapment as humans. We can clearly see that one of the rabbits is observing the world above in the uppermost corner.
The painting and tapestry are each created in a way to represent three strata, in this first piece we clearly see skylike/waterlike lower layer, Human and animals, rocks and roots layer and sky layer that in this case holds the shape of empty space because it is so far from a dream. This space only contains a star and a rabbit, both representing a freedom, almost a way out. Internal, largest and most dominant structure is dotted with earthly colored stones and water, sometimes symmetrical almost in its veins. Everything is entangled and little ants are everywhere, those engines of hierarchy and they strive under order. Underground depends on hierarchy. The entire piece emanates with earthly tones probably to remind that connection to Earth in this state of consciousness is inevitable, and necessary for survival.
Snow (drawing on paper)
First we are greeted with a hare, a human like slightly slouching figure of a rabbit that is sparkling with purity of frozen water who is inviting us into this world of rabbit holes. The rabbit wants us to follow into this world of underground where lower and upper layers are often very similar but focus like always in life is on the middle
Hoarfrost 2014 (fine silver)
This sculpture in a way leads us into the purity of water as it interacts with the underground from it’s wintery abide, nothing can impact the crystallization of water, this most important element that is a giver of life. There are thousands upon thousands of lines, paths, or maybe texture that is woodlike and the rabbit again leads us further into the rabbit hole, and it is fascinating how the choice of material makes this statement immortalized in our subconsciousness, because this is the type of exhibition that we watch with our subconscious eye.
Fallen 2019 (Bronze)
A sculpture of a man that is sleeping oblivious of it’s own again awkward position, distorted shape of the body as it works it’s way throughout challenges after being expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Spinners 2014 (drawing and tapestry)
In here we have a deep encounter with nature, the moth symbolizing transformation, first step towards awakening and the spiders that are waving the nets everywhere so symmetrically, just like the Sun is shining so symmetrically when it hits us from a distance, and in this world of miniature insects deep down in this 4th world, because this piece has instead of usual 3 it actually has 4 layers between underworld and upperworld. There is no great difference in color and texture between these worlds which suggests the message is unified, insects live much closer to creation, it is only branches that are growing up that somewhat interfere with this equilibrium of life.
Nets are all prevailing and Sun which normally is a giver of life to many other living beings, for them it figures only lightly especially because Kiki Smith indicated that the Spinners are associated to summer. There is so much to explore in this density between water through gold and metallic energy of space which they almost represent. The depths of water underneath and the mountains like structure suggest that even something so powerful as a mountain doesn’t really figure much in their dense life.
Whirling 1 2022 (Ink, Acrylic paint on paper)
This time we are diving into the world of jellyfish, surrounded by feathers lead by stars and a container for water. Truly a surreal piece that makes us question the elements, possibilities to mix the unmixable, while the universal keeps going regardless of our limited comprehension.
As it often or maybe even always happen it is the connection to the otherworldly that fuels the material. Hilma af Klint explains:
“The atom has at once limits and the capacity to develop. When the atom expands on the ether plane, the physical part of the earthly atom begins to glow” Still within the imaginary domain of Plato (This applies to all of us and lingers strongly even today), she is perceiving the otherworldly through the means of regular seances with a few other friends, participating in the join effort to communicate with the spirits, guides, masters, followed by meticulous note taking, self reflection, automatic writing and even painting. She claimed that he work is the result of the guidance from another realm, it’s subject are the universal topics, shape of the spiritual, hues of the primordial creation, directly connecting to the sources of the universe. She doesn’t believe in planning in many instances, she regards herself as a channel a mare tool through which the higher being (in symbiosis with her own) is expressing itself, tapping upon the universal truth. Her original youth infused fascination with the landscape is leading her to the road of observing the observer. Her use of symbols and primordial shape suggest a deeply philosophical way of seeing the reality, questioning this reality and pushing it into the symbolical, surrealistic, abstract inquiries, only established by the establishment in the later years.
Her vision is finally transcending the confine of the canvas and is thinking like a truly visionary artist wanting to present, merge her paintings with the space of spiral ascending stairs. Geometry is of highly spiritual nature in her pieces and she wants to reach beyond the canvas to scream the universal order of the universe that she is picking up from the beings in the other realm. Of course those beings could have easily been her subconscious mind that is roaming the infinite pool of imagination populated with all sorts of constructs. It is the element of reflection that is the most ubiquitously present throughout her opus and when we look at the reality of things, and from the perspective our 21st century empowered with the internet and all the religions, philosophies and mythologies of the world reachable at the movement of the fingertips, we realize the importance of the reflection. How universally everything resemble everything at some level and teaches us. She knew all of this somehow and presented it so long ago, even knowing that the world needs to mature to understand what she said through her paintings and her work is the tapping onto the universal, breaking away from many limitations and opening another way of looking at the art history.
