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Kiki Smith: The Fabric Workshop | "Exclusive" | Art21

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    [Kiki Smith: The Fabric Workshop]
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    I made this blanket...
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    I guess about two years ago now,
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    at The Fabric Workshop.
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    This one's backwards, also, but...
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    It's just the way it goes.
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    But, it was a big...
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    They’re on a Jacquard--
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    made on a Jacquard loom.
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    And then fulled,
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    which means they rip the surface like that,
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    so it's fuzzy like a Canadian blanket, kind of.
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    I'm making a show at The Fabric Workshop
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    of housewares, or,
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    rather than make art with it in a certain sense,
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    make objects--
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    make daily life things.
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    I have lots of ideas of things to make,
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    but I'm not good at...
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    I realize I'm good at doing
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    what I can do in my own power,
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    out of my own physicality.
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    And then, like, a little extension out from that.
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    But, I'm not good at, um...
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    you know, to manufacture things.
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    [SMITH, OFF-SCREEN] Yeah. No, here's my list.
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    [The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA]
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    [SMITH] Okay...
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    [WOMAN, SUE PATTERSON, LAUGHS OFF-SCREEN]
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    [SMITH] These are the things that are done.
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    [PATTERSON OFF-SCREEN CONTINUES LAUGHING] Nothing like a mega-sized list!
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    [PATTERSON] This is not the 'tuck in your shirt pocket' thing...
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    [SMITH] I have twenty years of these.
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    Okay, I have this big silver finger bowls.
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    [PATTERSON] Mmm hmm.
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    [SMITH] I have the packing blankets I made
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    at The Mattress Factory.
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    [PATTERSON] Yup, with the birds on them...
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    [SMITH] "Tailbone A.D."
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    Skull...the skull sculpture which is a doorstop.
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    [PATTERSON] Yup.
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    [PATTERSON] I've worked with Kiki
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    probably over the last two-and-a-half years.
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    I've worked at The Fabric Workshop for thirteen.
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    So, to put that in context,
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    I've worked with a lot of different people,
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    So, it's sort of...
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    You get a new experience each time.
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    And she's primarily doing, with us, textile-related things.
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    [Sue Patterson, Project Manager]
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    Anything fabric-related, we can whip it up faster,
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    and knock a screen of something off.
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    So, she loves that facility.
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    She appreciates working with people that have other skills
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    that aren't available at her house.
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    [MAN] Kiki?
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    On the fabric, do you want them, like,
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    straight up and down?
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    [SMITH] Oh, I thought they were sort of
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    going on an angle, aren't they?
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    [MAN] Is that what you want?
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    [SMITH] Yeah.
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    [MAN] Okay.
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    [SMITH] Yeah.
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    [MAN] So assume, like, this...
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    [SMITH] Let's see if you straighten it,
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    what it looks like.
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    No. It should go at an angle
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    [MAN] Like that.
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    [SMITH] Yeah.
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    [MAN] Okay.
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    [PATTERSON] Kiki will be making a mixed bag of things.
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    And some of those she's working on today.
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    The wallpaper is one.
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    The coverlet...
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    Another blanket is one.
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    The little flip doll--
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    the owl-cat doll--is one.
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    She's doing a bunch of
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    cast-silver jewelry objects.
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    A colander that has a constellation.
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    And the wonderful thing about Kiki that I love
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    is that she's making art twenty-four hours a day.
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    It's like you go to her house,
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    and there's everything all over the place.
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    People are, you know, calling on the phone,
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    and there's a pot of glue under the table, and...
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    It's this really seamless experience for her--
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    That there's no border between
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    going to the studio and making artwork.
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    And that's really great,
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    because it's just natural.
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    [SMITH] It'll be a queen-sized bed blanket, so,
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    it has the hands with the flowers there,
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    and then the hands with the candles
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    and the bird.
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    And then the bottom part are the heads.
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    The back side will be the weeping willows there.
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    [SMITH] Perfect!
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    It looks alright...
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    I mean, it looks like wallpaper in...
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    the kitchen.
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    [LAUGHS]
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    1960-something.
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    [MAN] In the drawing room. In the drawing room.
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    [SMITH] A la 1960s.
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    It's just what I wanted...
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    [MAN] Just what you need!
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    [SMITH] Just what I wanted it to look like.
Title:
Kiki Smith: The Fabric Workshop | "Exclusive" | Art21
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
04:40
Jonathan Munar edited English subtitles for Kiki Smith: The Fabric Workshop | "Exclusive" | Art21 Dec 5, 2013, 4:24 PM

English subtitles

Revisions

  • Revision 1 Edited
    Jonathan Munar Dec 5, 2013, 4:24 PM