Photo-etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Out of the Woods
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kiki-smith-2280" aria-label="More by Kiki Smith" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Kiki Smith</a>
Encryption 55
Presented by Universal Limited Art Editions and the artist in memory of Monique Beudert 2003
actions: postures and motions
adults
artist, multi-media
arts and entertainment
caption
cinema
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fear
film, music and ballet
film: Sjöström, Victor, ‘The Wind’
formal qualities
hand / hands raised
inscriptions
leisure and pastimes
literature and fiction
looking up
magic and occultism
menace
music and entertainment
named individuals
people
photographic
portraits
religion and belief
self-portraits
Smith, Kiki
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
vulnerability
witch
woman
work and occupations
<p><span>Out of the Woods</span> is a portfolio of five photogravure prints made by the artist at Universal Limited Art Editions, a fine art print workshop in New York. ULAE first invited Smith to make prints with them in 1989 after her early silkscreens were shown at the Brooklyn Museum. This series is one of several the artist has made experimenting with the sophisticated equipment available at ULAE. The portfolio was produced in an edition of forty-one; Tate’s copy is number thirty-eight.</p>
paper print photo-etching
Untitled (Encryption) 5:5
image: 290 × 190 mm
Presented by Universal Limited Art Editions and the artist in memory of Monique Beudert 2003
<p><i>Out of the Woods</i> is a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> of five photogravure <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> made by the artist at Universal Limited Art Editions, a fine art print workshop in New York. ULAE first invited Smith to make prints with them in 1989 after her early silkscreens were shown at the Brooklyn Museum. This series is one of several the artist has made experimenting with the sophisticated equipment available at ULAE. The portfolio was produced in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of forty-one; Tate’s copy is number thirty-eight.
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<br/>The five prints depict the artist dressed as a witch. In a black cape, long skirt and heavy boots, she poses melodramatically against a dense black background. The images have been digitally modified, changing the relative size of parts of her body. The head is abnormally enlarged, while the hands are reduced. In addition, the artist’s body is truncated, making the figure appear dwarf-like. The digital manipulations give the prints a hallucinatory quality, enhanced by the density of the black tonality of the image. The photogravure technique enhances the deep blacks of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monochrome" title="Glossary definition for 'Monochrome'"><span>monochrome</span></a> prints, giving them a rich velvety quality. Photogravure is a process in which a photographic image is printed using an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> plate, enhancing the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tonal</span></a> variations of the original.
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<br/>The prints include brief texts by the artist which appear under the images in one or two lines of elaborately looped handset type. Each text refers to one of the five senses. <i>Untitled (Encryption) 5:5</i> refers to sight and includes the lines ‘A raven comes and perches on the witch. Her eyes shine out night, then a wind comes up.’ The witch is looking upwards fearfully, her hands spread to the sides. The area around her head is in shadow. Her demeanour suggests she is being threatened.
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<br/>The artist has explained that the suite of prints was inspired by the silent film <i>The Wind</i>, 1928, directed by Victor Sjöström (1879-1960). The film tells the story of a young woman, played by Lillian Gish (1893-1993), trying to survive in the harsh Texan prairie. In one of the most memorable scenes the heroine is lost in a dust storm. Smith has said, ‘One of my great ambitions in life is to remake Lillian Gish’s <i>The Wind</i>. It’s one of my favourite things. So this portfolio was about a woman lost in a forest – a lost witch’ (quoted in Weitman, p.29). Smith combines the atmospheric melodrama of Sjöström’s film with the dreamlike, claustrophobic world of fairy tales. She has explored the ambiguous, partly autobiographical figure of the fairy tale witch before, notably in a series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood made in 2000. She has said, ‘I have always thought of myself as the crone’ (quoted in Weitman, p.29). The fairy tale witch is a potent cultural figure, powerful and demonic. Smith’s depictions of her emphasise another side of the character, her vulnerability. In a related photographic work Smith depicts herself as a sleeping witch, merging the characters of Sleeping Beauty and the witch who gives her the poisoned apple. The lost witch in <i>Out of the Woods</i> is a similarly hybrid creature, simultaneously frightening and frightened.
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Wendy Weitman, <i>Kiki Smith: Prints, Books, and Things</i>, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2003.
<br/>Ilka Becker, <i>Kiki Smith: small sculptures and large drawings</i>, exhibition catalogue, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, 2001.
<br/>Helaine Posner and David Frankel, <i>Kiki Smith</i>, Boston, 1998.
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<br/>Rachel Taylor
<br/>January 2004
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Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
actions: postures and motions adults artist, multi-media arts and entertainment caption cinema emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fear film, music and ballet film: Sjöström, Victor, ‘The Wind’ formal qualities hand / hands raised inscriptions leisure and pastimes literature and fiction looking up magic and occultism menace music and entertainment named individuals people photographic portraits religion and belief self-portraits Smith, Kiki symbols and personifications universal concepts vulnerability witch woman work and occupations