A painting of ghostly human figures "stamped" in varying sizes in a row.

Flock

Artist Kiki Smith (American, born 1954)

Date2005

MediumMixed media on paper

DimensionsImage: 19 3/4 × 73 1/4 inches (50.2 × 186.1 cm)
Framed: 23 × 76 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches (58.4 × 193.7 × 3.8 cm)

Credit LineKirk Varnedoe Collection, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, Gift of the artist.

Object number2006.24

On View

Not on view

Copyright© Kiki Smith, courtesy Pace Prints. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextKiki Smith was born into an artistic family: her father, Tony Smith, was a sculptor, and her mother, Jane Lawrence Smith, was an opera singer and an actress. Raised in New Jersey and educated at the Hartford Art School, Smith has worked extensively in a variety of media, including sculpture, printmaking, photography, and drawing. Her work is known for its use of unconventional materials, such as blood, glass, and embroidery, and its focus on the human body and the natural world. References to anatomy, reproduction, and bodily fluids abound in Smith’s work. Flock illustrates the artist’s concern with the relationships between mankind and the natural world. Smith has painted the bodies of dead birds in gold and silver, then pressed the birds onto a sheet of paper in a neat, orderly row. The 16 bird shapes are each unique, and the marks they make on the paper reveal the fragility of their feathers, beaks, and feet. The birds’ cause of death has not been assigned, but the marks on the paper have clearly been deliberately placed by human hands.

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