Artist Interview: Shinique Smith
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Shinique Smith: As I'm doing the piece, it kind of turned into a sort of memorial, in a way,
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the hip-hop stars that are depicted, they are hip-hop and graffiti-related,
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People who mean something to me and my past that are all now gone.
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There's Tupac, and Aaliyah, Lisa Left Eye, Notorious B.I.G.,
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O.D.B., Jam Master J., Eazy E., James Brown, and Keith Haring and Basquiat.
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There are small images of them in varying scales and from different parts
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that are referenced throughout the installation.
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I think the way that my installation is put together is kind of
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like something like I was reconnecting with myself as a teenager, and
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putting up images of stars that I admired but had also gone away,
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and kind of making this very feminine memorial
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to them and using also Nikki Giovanni's script
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which is about expressing one's self and the struggle of that.
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Benjamin Bloom: Can you talk specifically about the pink heels?
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Those are kind of, those are really set apart in your installation and I really noticed those.
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Shinique Smith: Well they're, they're something that I've had around for a long time, and I think it really went with the piece,
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I think the type of pink heels that they are they are like
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sort of tennis shoe high heels with chains and
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rhinestones, a little bling added to them, but there's something
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kind of little-girl like and innocent about them being there
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it's I think the gesture of leaving the shoes is almost like the gesture
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that one the action of one leaving
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a candle at the base of a little memorial in the street,
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but there's just a pair of shoes.
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Benjamin Bloom: So you installed your piece in 5 days, here on site at the Portrait Gallery.
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Can you talk a bit about that experience?
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Shinique Smith: Well, I have to say, first off,
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its an honor to be able to do an installation like this in the National Portrait Gallery.
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I think its unusual for the space, and I mean, it had its own challenges.
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There were pros and cons to the room, its just different.
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Every time you do a site specific installation, the space and its environment affects it.
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So I think that there are physical constraints to working in a space,
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and also things that can't happen within this museum that could happen in my studio or gallery.
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You have to be really flexible, and I was flexible as much as I could be, and try to work with it.
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The vaulted ceilings and working up onto that arch was really excellent.
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Shinique Smith: [[laughs]] But I got a guilty little pleasure from painting and drawing and writing on the walls,
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and I do that a lot, and I get a pleasure from doing that on a clean white space,
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but especially here since its a kind of old institution, and to know that I'm probably the first person to do something site specific
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like this is really cool.
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Benjamin Bloom: What's your process in terms of doing that-- how much of it do you do in your studio and how much do you do on site?
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Shinique Smith: Well, that's a really good question.
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I prepared some collage prior to coming here,
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but basically I came with a suitcase and materials and brushes
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and ink and paint and drawing stuff, and random objects and clothing that I wanted to use.
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And I didn't really know what it was going to turn into or be until I got into the space and began working.
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And, I don't usually work with sketches in that way, I just work it out on the wall,
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and as I'm going through it. There's some stepping back and some editing as I go,
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but it is what it is, and its like a direct intuitive process come in with these things and make what I can in this space.
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Benjamin Bloom: I read in your artist statement that you spent time as a graffiti artist
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and what drew you to graffiti, and how does graffiti influence your current work?
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Shinique Smith: Um, well, as a teenager I, you know, wrote a little graffiti, I was part of a crew.
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What drew me to it at the time was my 9th grade boyfriend and one of my really good friends today,
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who's a great graffiti artist, and artist in general.
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So what drew me to it, I guess, at the time, was the camaraderie, that sort of group minded mentality,
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everyone that I knew was inspired by it, and for us as kids, the city was our playground.
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We used to sneak out of the house and go riding all night.
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It was safer then in Baltimore to do that.
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Shinique Smith: So I guess that, the thrill of maybe being caught, the need for speed.
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How it influences my work, I think, that along with other things from my youth, my work is somewhat nostalgic of that period of time.
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Benjamin Bloom: Can you talk more about how hip hop music has influenced your art?
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You say that you have it on while you are actually doing art, and you take inspiration from the lyrics and so forth.
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Can you talk a little more about how it affects your process?
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Shinique Smith: I think hip hop music especially because its lyrically based, that the lyrics form the rhythm,
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and then a lot of the music is then backup for that.
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I think there's a lot related between that and the process of my mark making.
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Because it's a constant movement. One song in particular that I feel is a huge influence on me
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is a Public Enemy song, called "Rebel Without A Pause."
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And it's this kind of long train of thought, like one continuous line.
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The rhythm and the rhyme and the line making, I think, I'll meld together when I'm working.
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But, it's one aspect of my work.
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Benjamin Bloom: How do you feel that the pressure of time either makes your work better, or constrains it?
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Shinique Smith: I think I work fast, and I think that because its being generated from within,
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that depending on the mood and the circumstance, it can be free flowing.
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I think that's another relationship to graffiti itself, because when you are doing things out in the world,
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you want to do it fast.
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I think that part of my life and that effect on me of getting it right the first time,
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and being free to flow that way, its kind of --
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Shinique Smith: You have to be really confident, to lay down marks on a wall like that
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because there's no backing up. So, I work well, I think, within that situation.
