Artists speak: Kiki Smith.

"In the early 90s I said, 'I don't want to make humans any more.' The world was in such a terrible state ... it was only important to make things about animals and nature. But then I started thinking about how our identity was constructed around nature and animals, and how many metaphors we use in thinking about ourselves in relationship to animals. And I just said, "It's good to put them together. That's what's important, to put them together and keep saying that's important to think about."

King Kong, 2002. Bronze, 10 x 21 x 8" (51 x 54 x 20 cm) including base. Edition of 3. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson. Courtesy the artist and PAce Wildestein.

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My Blue Lake, 1994. Photogravure and monoprint, 42 1/2 x 53 1/2" (108 x 136 cm). Trial proof, edition of 41. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson. Courtesy the artist and Pace Wildenstein.

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"I think art is just a way to have an opportunity to think about things. I don't have any place that I'm trying to make it go. I'm not trying to control it at all. It's like standing in the wind and letting it pull you where, whatever direction, it wants to go ... and things start telling you what you're supposed to pay attention to."

Flight Mound, 1997-98. Silkscreen ink on quilted blankets, 64 x 67" (163 x 171 cm), 44 blankets, each installation variable. Photograph by Ellen Page Wilson. Courtesy the artist and Pace Wildenstein.

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"The most important thing for me is looking at objects, looking at things that people have made. I'm sort of a private person, so my life isn't so much about my social relationships. It's more about looking at what people have made, appreciating people through what they have made or what they do. So I need to look at things all the time. You learn from things that, maybe, you see once, and then it just sort of resonates in your mind for long periods of time, sometimes for years ... I don't like things being so like a story ... I don't want to make a tight narrative. I'm too jumpy or something. I don't want to be so declarative. I'd rather make something that's very open-minded that then can have a meaning to me, but then ... somebody else can fill it up with meaning."

About the Artist

Born: 1954, Nuremberg, Germany

Lives and Works: New York City

Media and Materials: drawing, papier-mache, printmaking, fabric and textiles, papermaking, sculpture using wax, metal, and glass casting

Influences: Catholicism, childhood memories, animals, dolls, Virgin Mary, medieval history, witches and witchcraft, Genevieve--the patron saint of Paris, Biblical stories Kiki Smith creates sculptures, prints, and drawings. The daughter of American sculptor Tony Smith, one of Smith's first experiences with art was helping her father make cardboard models for his geometric sculptures. This training, combined with her upbringing in the Catholic Church, often resurfaces in Smith's work as she combines abstract elements with narrative and religious themes. Smith's work often uses the human body and characters to describe philosophical or ephemeral ideas. Her sculptural work has evolved to incorporate animals, domestic objects, and narratives from classical mythology and folk tales. Life, death, and resurrection are important themes in many of Smith's installations and sculptures.