December 1-4, 2016
Survey Sector, Booth S12
The Box is pleased to present work by Barbara T. Smith at Art Basel Miami Beach. For over four decades, Smith has produced a body of work in performance, painting and sculptural installation. The Box will showcase Smith’s sculptures, objects created at an intersection between the artist’s long-standing feminist performance practice and her interest in ritualistic methodologies. Smith’s work explores themes of the body, food, female desire, heterosexual relationships, sexuality, religion, spiritual transformation, love, and death.
This project focuses on sculptural resin objects as well as a single film. The works, in spirit and material, all relate to Smith’s seminal installation Field Piece (1968/1971). Field Piece, a monumental sculpture that was Smith’s vision of a never-ending field of grass symbolizing personal freedom, was composed of 15-foot tall hollow blades made of translucent resin.
From remnants of this installation, Smith created the film Light Watch. Shot on 16mm film, Light Watch is one time-lapse shot, featuring a single resin ‘blade’ from Field Piece embedded in the shoreline of a large body of water.
Resin sculptures created after Field Piece are also included. From the mid 1970s through the 1990s, Smith encased many objects in this volatile and fragile material, ranging from performance relics to personal mementos and detritus, creating an innovative body of work in the process.