Tidal

Artist Kiki Smith (American, born 1954)

Publisher LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies

Date1998

Dimensionsbox: 12 x 10 7/8 x 1 in. (305 x 276 x 25mm)
book: 10 1/4 x 9 11/16 in. (260 x 246mm)
book: 49.5 x 320.7 cm (19 1/2 x 126 1/4 in.)

MediumOriginal prints: photogravures on Hahnemuehle paper Reproductions: photolithographs of photographs on Kizukishi paper Text: screenprinting in white Photogravure, photo lithography and silkscreen

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMrs. George W. Stevens Fund

Object number

1999.6

Not on View

DescriptionAccordion fold book with two different papers, meant to be viewed completely opened and unfolded; the joins are bound with strips of black linen. The book is housed in a black cloth box, screenprinted in black on the front.

Label TextA prolific printmaker and sculptor, Kiki Smith has pursued a multidisciplinary approach to the natural world since the 1980s. This inventive print project of exceptional power and beauty depicts an accordion-folded panorama of 13 moons over tidal waters. Smith joins her photographs of the moon taken at an astronomical observatory with ocean elements that are then printed on semi-translucent, handmade Kizukishi paper. Notable for her use of wax, glass and paper materials to suggest the fragility and ephemeral nature of human existence, here Smith’s choice of materials is inspired by their ability to evoke the fluid movement of ocean tides and its luminescent character.