Web Description:
Brown Water, an installation by the internationally known artist Kiki Smith, was made in 1999 with the Pennsylvania glassblower Tom Farbanish. Smith is a sculptor and a printmaker who uses a variety of materials and techniques in her work. The human body and the natural world are her recurring subjects, and she uses glass as a spiritual element and as a metaphor for sky and water. Smith is one of many artists who have used glass effectively to explore ideas about landscape and nature. In Brown Water, 247 hot-formed, solid drops of glass create a landscape that evokes falling water (the drops spreading randomly across the floor like the patternless spotting of rain) or that constitutes its own body of water (seemingly solid but still requiring navigation). Here, Smith explores the contradictory nature of the material, which is often called a “rigid liquid,” and its wondrous ability to give form to amorphous substances, such as water and light. Assembled dimensions variable.
