so who is allison smith?

the official. the profound. the profoundly confusing.

Smith is a New York based artist known for her works such as The Muster, Hobby Horse, and Victory Hall. In an attempt to explain her art, her official biography states that she is “interested in the notion of ‘authentic reproductions’ – a common if oxymoronic phrase describing contemporary objects or tableaux that conjure historical aesthetics and episodes.” Uh…so what does that mean? It didn’t mean anything to us, so here’s our take:

straight from the (hobby) horse’s mouth.

We saw Smith talk at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis on January 15, 2008. During her talk she spoke a lot about her past and we found that this gave us a much better understanding of what influences her work than we could find in any published biography of her.

Smith was born in Manassas, Virginia. Growing up so close to the famed Civil War battlefield has had a definite impact on her work; the Civil War is a recurring theme in her work. Growing up in Manassas not only exposed her to the Civil War in general, but also to historic re-enactors, a commonplace at many historic battlefields. Her interest in re-enactment came not only from her proximity to it, but also from her own experiences, She talked about growing up gay in the conservative South and having the feeling of constantly being watched. This experience caused her want to watch people, to become an observer. She found that re-enactors not only recreated history, but in doing so performed their own identity. While history is still extremely important to the re-enactors, it also in a ways ‘falls into the background’ in the performance of their own identity.

identity and activism.

Smith has embraced this technique in her work and extended it further, not only performing her own identity, but calling attention to social issues and people to social activism. Smith uses history to comment on current issues.

Smith earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from Yale University School of Art. We think it is cool that in addition to these art degrees she has a BA in psychology from the New School for Social Research. We can’t help but wonder if this degree in psychology helps her consider how other people think about and relate to their history…and in turn, how she can draw on the assumptions people make about their history while also making them question these assumptions.

Other biographies on Smith can be found at:

http://www.themuster.com/
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/allison_smith.htm
http://www.bellwethergallery.com/artistsindex