#barbaratsmith

"Where is your safety and where is your love? Everything is right there around you." - Barbara T.Smith

While many art schools today have cut down on the teaching of art history and countless aspiring artists might feel they spring, like Athena, pure from the head of Zeus or the well of art itself, it’s interesting to consider that what today would still feel cutting-edge or totally radical has indeed been done before. Artists like Smith, or Stuart Brisley, might work somehow in the shadows, less fanfared than some of their peers, but clearly their reach is long and their grip firm. The real challenge is being informed of these actions and still being able to extrapolate a position that is fresh and unique. Amanda Coulson

“This piece took place between sunset and sunrise at the Museum of Conceptual Art in San Francisco during an event called “All Night Sculptures,” in the women’s rest room of that 1920s building. The relatively large room had a single toilet behind a door and a washbasin at one end. I sat naked on a divan surrounded by items of sensual connection (bread, fruit, drinks, books to read, massage oils and perfumes, tea and coffee, beads and ornaments, marijuana, etc.) and one person at a time was allowed to enter. A tape loop in a corner played my voice saying: “Feed Me” over and over. Rumor had it that I intended to make love with every man who entered. My intention was instead to turn the situation around so the man would be challenged to figure out what would please me and offer it. It was a request for subtlety, sensuousness and complexity rather than mere lust. I was given every nuance of the room’s potential, which included making love, in a sequence of super-intensified encounters (due to the heightened awareness and focused intensity of the piece and the context of the times). Sixteen men and three women came in.”