Valerie Hammond, Apports, 4-color photogravure, 20" x 16", 2012. SCAD permanent collection. Print created at SCAD Atlanta. Courtesy of SCAD. |
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Since the invention of the camera in the early 19th century, spirit photography—the practice of attempting to capture images of spirits on film—fascinated those interested in the occult, including Mary Todd Lincoln and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The lure of this art form continues today in the work of Kiki Smith and Valerie Hammond. These internationally renowned artists, known for their own work in photography, printmaking, painting and sculpture, will share their latest collaboration in Streaming Spirits, an exhibition opening July 7, 2012, at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s (SCAD) La Galerie Pfriem in Lacoste, France.
The exhibition features 12 new prints created with the help of seven undergraduate and graduate printmaking students at SCAD Atlanta under the direction of the artists and SCAD’s printmaking chair and master printer, Robert Brown, along with several related works produced in the past year.
“The creative collaboration between Smith, Hammond and SCAD’s talented printmaking department imbues Streaming Spirits with layers of energy and an ethos of connectivity” said Laurie Ann Farrell, SCAD’s executive director of exhibitions. “The works featured in the exhibition have a poignant, haunting presence on their own; the context of experiencing these works in Lacoste, a medieval village where the sense of history is prevalent and resonating, is truly profound.”
The works were created using a variety of printmaking techniques, including lithography, photogravure and letterpress, over the course of two week-long visits made by Smith and Hammond to SCAD Atlanta in July 2011 and January 2012. The students who collaborated with Smith and Hammond include graduate students Nate Kamp, Laura Cleary, Shaun McCallum, Ashley L. Schick, Carla Aaron-Lopez and Alison Batley, and undergraduate student Sara Hemingway.
Among the works included in Streaming Spirits is Kiki Smith’s Color Noise, an accordion-fold lithograph of self-portraits; apports, Valerie Hammond’s four-color photogravure of Smith’s back; and Hammond’s River Goddess, a two-plate photogravure of Smith emerging from water.
An exhibition catalog featuring text and images on the project by guest curator and scholar Crista Cloutier will accompany theexhibition.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Cloutier will moderate a panel discussion with Smith and Hammond during the exhibition opening on July 7.
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