Totems
Emily Mae Smith at CFA Berlin
In the post-postmodern world, art has become much more layered. Appropriation of imagery, style, and narrative are common, and are often effective with the right artist. However, sometimes the references and techniques work together so beautifully that the artwork you see goes beyond its inspirations. Emily Mae Smith’s Feast of Totems at CFA Berlin is one such example.
Upon first inspection, you see technicolor palettes and smooth, sleek finishes. Spiked pears, high heeled shoes with Doric columns as stilettos, lifelike brooms, and an Apple with nearly pornographic lips are just some of the images you encounter with these paintings. Obviously two art movements here have influenced Smith: Surrealism and the Chicago Imagists. The nonsensical sort of compositions and images conjured up by Smith lend themselves heavily to artists like René Magritte or Roger Brown, but Smith goes a step further.
After a little more looking, you see that titles and details are laden with more references and narratives. Eve, as mentioned, is a “portrait” of a golden brown apple with plump lips. The drops of water covering the pristine fruit adds to the strange sexual edge to this work. Smith goes straight to the Biblical story of creation, and makes the original sin a funny joke. History is dark, complicated, and messy, and rather than respecting it, Smith uses her art to mock it. Devouring Saturn performs a similar trick; rather than making an ode to Francisco Goya’s famous painting or the original myth, Smith instead shows cartoonish teeth chomping down on the planet Saturn and takes the air out of this macho story.
The animated broom is the most common motif used in the exhibition. As the press release notes, brooms have multiple meanings in art. They can represent the domestic space, labor, the phallus, and order. These meanings also all intersect with traditional roles given to women over history. Taking up poses from paintings by George Frederic Watts or William-Adolphe Bouguereau, these brooms become a symbol of Smith’s gaze and agency.
This show isn’t about aggressiveness or reclaiming a historical narrative though. In fact, whimsy and humor seems to be the main takeaway here. There might dozens of references, but the paintings are all quite comical, and seem to poke some fun at the oppressive weight of (male) history. Smith manages to exceed as an artist because despite the heavy subject matter, her touch is just as light and her humor is apparent.
