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Transcription: [00:02:21]
{SPEAKER name="Benjamin Bloom"}
So you installed your piece in 5 days, here on site at the Portrait Gallery.
[00:02:27]
Can you talk a bit about that experience?
[00:02:30]
{SPEAKER name="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.
[00:02:49]
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.
[00:03:03]
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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{SPEAKER name="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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{SPEAKER name="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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{SPEAKER name="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.