BB#1
Artist
Paul Anthony Smith
(born Jamaica, active United States, born 1988)
Date2016
Mediuminkjet print mounted on museum board, manipulated with picotage and colored pencil
Dimensionsframed: 154.9 × 104.1 × 2.5 cm (61 × 41 × 1 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Jean McDonough
Object number2023.26
Label TextSmith’s approach to photography conceals as much as it reveals. A signature of his practice is the use of picotage, a technique introduced in the 18th century to create dotted textile patterns on fabric, also known as stippling. Instead of adding flecks to cloth, he picks away at the surface of pigment prints with a ceramic tool. His repetitive notches create a lenticular effect that makes the image shift depending on the viewer’s position in relation to the work.
The first in his series Building Blocks, BB#1 uses architectural forms that simultaneously confine and protect its subjects. "For years, I've been interested in cinder blocks and walls and how they create social structures. I've also been interested in the ways images are read when memory becomes broken and fragmented."On View
Not on view
