Our private lives — our fantasies, rituals, and identities — are increasingly mortgaged to create our public personas. In Karinne Smith’s work, this give-and-take leaves a void which language cannot fill. Family histories and cherished memories are shown to be as malleable as fondant and as porous as the surface of a cantaloupe. Her works complicate a conventional understanding of genre, finding terror in the romantic and the grotesque in conventional beauty. Stripped of our ability to divorce pleasure from repulsion, the fecund from the putrid, we are led to the uneasy realization that horror is a genre through which we can remake the world.
Recent works have used found photos as points of departure: emotional documents which, in the hands of the artist, are both detached from their original meaning and open to new narratives and associations. The artist combines material experimentation with ideas of femininity, adolescence, and domesticity in an installation which ultimately pushes the viewer toward a visceral sensory experience, one wrought with overabundance.
Holly Bushman
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Longburger, 2021 Collagen dyed with soda, melon seeds, baby powder, agar agar, glycerin, sprinkles, silicone, clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 116 x 39 x 36 inches (295 x 99 x 91 cm) (KS2)
Karinne Smith Untitled (piece of Pinkie II), 2021 collagen dyed with soda, silicone, baby powder, ribbon, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 124 x 52 x 36 inches (310 x 132 x 91 cm) (KS1)
Karinne Smith Untitled (piece of Pinkie II), 2021 (detail) collagen dyed with soda, silicone, baby powder, ribbon, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 124 x 52 x 36 inches (310 x 132 x 91 cm) (KS1)
Karinne Smith Untitled (piece of Pinkie II), 2021 (detail) collagen dyed with soda, silicone, baby powder, ribbon, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 124 x 52 x 36 inches (310 x 132 x 91 cm) (KS1)
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Untitled, 2021 Collagen dyed with Gatorade, glass beads, plastic doll heels, toy jellyfish, horseshoe crab, glitter, sprinkles, dried melon, agar agar, glycerin, baby powder, clear rubber bands, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 103 x 80 x 15 inches (258 x 203 x 38 cm) (KS3)
Karinne Smith Untitled, 2021 (detail) Collagen dyed with Gatorade, glass beads, plastic doll heels, toy jellyfish, horseshoe crab, glitter, sprinkles, dried melon, agar agar, glycerin, baby powder, clear rubber bands, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 103 x 80 x 15 inches (258 x 203 x 38 cm) (KS3)
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Melon Skin Installation view
Karinne Smith Keeper 4, Keeper 5, 2021 (20 September 2021) found photograph, melon, collagen, dried carpenter bees, sewing pins, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) each (KS7, KS8)
Karinne Smith Keeper 3, 2021 found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) KS6
Karinne Smith Keeper 3, 2021 (detail; 20 September 2021) found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS6)
Karinne Smith Keeper 2, 2021 (20 September 2021) Found photograph, melon, collagen, dried carpenter bees, sewing pins, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS5)
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (20 September 2021) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (detail; 20 September 2021) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
Karinne Smith Keeper 6, 2021 found photograph, collagen, silicone, plaster, acrylic paint, acrylic, glass beads, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS9)
Karinne Smith Keeper 6, 2021 (detail) found photograph, collagen, silicone, plaster, acrylic paint, acrylic, glass beads, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS9)
Karinne Smith Keeper 3, 2021 (detail; 14 September 2021) found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) KS6
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (detail) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (detail) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (detail) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
Karinne Smith Keeper 6, 2021 (detail) found photograph, collagen, silicone, plaster, acrylic paint, acrylic, glass beads, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS9)
Karinne Smith Untitled, 2021 (detail; cast melon) Collagen dyed with Gatorade, glass beads, plastic doll heels, toy jellyfish, horseshoe crab, glitter, sprinkles, dried melon, agar agar, glycerin, baby powder, clear rubber bands, scrotum clamps, cotton rope, cast plaster melons 103 x 80 x 15 inches (258 x 203 x 38 cm) (KS3)
Karinne Smith Keeper 6, 2021 (detail) found photograph, collagen, silicone, plaster, acrylic paint, acrylic, glass beads, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS9)
Karinne Smith Keeper 5, 2021 (18 September 2021) found photograph, melon, collagen, sewing pins, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) each (KS8)
Karinne Smith Keeper 1, 2021 (detail; 10 September 2021) Found photograph, melon, collagen, glass beads, plaster, plexiglass, resin, hardware 29 x 20 x 8 inches (74 x 51 x 20 cm) (KS4)
