Guest House
7th January - 25th February 2017
Chromogenic print on plexiglass
Image: 94,5 x 70,9 inches
This series of photographs has been produced by the artist during a visit of renovated row houses in 2003 in the third district of Houston, Texas.
These row houses are former “Shotgun Houses” (12’ wide 3.5 m), little traditional Haitian houses introduced in the south of the United States, notably in New Orleans in the 19th century. The front door is placed in the same axis of the back door, and the legend tells that a gunshot through the door traversed the entire hall. These houses sheltered freed slaves and proletarian families.
The ensemble has been built in the 1930s according to this model and then renovated in the 1990s by community activists organising a social and artistic project named “Project Guest Houses”. Until now, forty houses have been renovated, hosting artists in residence who are working on the Afro-American heritage and single mother or community activities.
Exhibitions:
- Guest House, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, 7th January- 25th February 2017
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
Chromogenic print
Image: 48 x 48 inches
Drawn and made by Tony Smith in 1951, this Guest House is a private property located in Guilford, Connecticut. Invited coincidentally in this house, Seton Smith was marked by this encounter with her father’s architectural minimalism. Hence, she made a series of four photographs named Guest House. Composed of bedrooms at each end, a bathroom and a central kitchen resting on pylons overhanging the Long Island Sound, this house represents the efficiency of modernism through its sober and humble design. Moreover, the view on the estuary fills with life the place, which appears as perched within space. Relying on this architectural minimalism, she occults it through the perspective, as a way to play with her familial architectural heritage.
Exhibitions:
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
- Winston Wachter Gallery, Seattle, Etats-Unis, 2007
Bibliography:
- FRANGNE Pierre Henry and LIMIDO Patricia, Les inventions photographiques du paysage, presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016, p. 28
- MESCHEDE Friedrich (HG.), Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Bielefeld : Kerber Christof Verlag, septembre 2012, p.51.
Chromogenic print
Image: 48 x 48 inches
Drawn and made by Tony Smith in 1951, this Guest House is a private property located in Guilford, Connecticut. Invited coincidentally in this house, Seton Smith was marked by this encounter with her father’s architectural minimalism. Hence, she made a series of four photographs named Guest House. Composed of bedrooms at each end, a bathroom and a central kitchen resting on pylons overhanging the Long Island Sound, this house represents the efficiency of modernism through its sober and humble design. Moreover, the view on the estuary fills with life the place, which appears as perched within space. Relying on this architectural minimalism, she occults it through the perspective, as a way to play with her familial architectural heritage.
Exhibitions:
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
- Winston Wachter Gallery, Seattle, Etats-Unis, 2007
Bibliographie:
- FRANGNE Pierre Henry et LIMIDO Patricia, Les inventions photographiques du paysage, presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016, p. 28
- MESCHEDE Friedrich (HG.), Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Bielefeld : Kerber Christof Verlag, septembre 2012, p.52
Chromogenic print
Image: 94,5 x 70,9 in
This series of photographs has been produced by the artist during a visit of renovated row houses in 2003 in the third district of Houston, Texas.
These row houses are former “Shotgun Houses” (12’ wide 3.5 m), little traditional Haitian houses introduced in the south of the United States, notably in New Orleans in the 19th century. The front door is placed in the same axis of the back door, and the legend tells that a gunshot through the door traversed the entire hall. These houses sheltered freed slaves and proletarian families.
The ensemble has been built in the 1930s according to this model and then renovated in the 1990s by community activists organising a social and artistic project named “Project Guest Houses”. Until now, forty houses have been renovated, hosting artists in residence who are working on the Afro-American heritage and single mother or community activities.
Exhibitions:
- Guest House, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France, 7 janvier- 25 février 2017
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
Chromogenic print
Image: 94,5 x 70,9 inches
This series of photographs has been produced by the artist during a visit of renovated row houses in 2003 in the third district of Houston, Texas.
These row houses are former “Shotgun Houses” (12’ wide 3.5 m), little traditional Haitian houses introduced in the south of the United States, notably in New Orleans in the 19th century. The front door is placed in the same axis of the back door, and the legend tells that a gunshot through the door traversed the entire hall. These houses sheltered freed slaves and proletarian families.
The ensemble has been built in the 1930s according to this model and then renovated in the 1990s by community activists organising a social and artistic project named “Project Guest Houses”. Until now, forty houses have been renovated, hosting artists in residence who are working on the Afro-American heritage and single mother or community activities.
Exhibitions:
- Guest House, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France 7th January- 25th February 2017
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
Chromogenic print
Image: 94,5 x 70,9 inches
This series of photographs has been produced by the artist during a visit of renovated row houses in 2003 in the third district of Houston, Texas.
These row houses are former “Shotgun Houses” (12’ wide 3.5 m), little traditional Haitian houses introduced in the south of the United States, notably in New Orleans in the 19th century. The front door is placed in the same axis of the back door, and the legend tells that a gunshot through the door traversed the entire hall. These houses sheltered freed slaves and proletarian families.
The ensemble has been built in the 1930s according to this model and then renovated in the 1990s by community activists organising a social and artistic project named “Project Guest Houses”. Until now, forty houses have been renovated, hosting artists in residence who are working on the Afro-American heritage and single mother or community activities.
Exhibitions:
- Guest House, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, 7th January- 25th February 2017
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Allemagne, 2012
Chromogenic prints and Plexiglas, diptych
Image: 72 x 72 inches each each
The Falling Trees Series was shot at Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana, in 2006. There must have been huge storms that took down so many trees, that then decompose and nourish the forest floor for the cycle of new trees to start again, only to weather new storms.
Expositions:
- Guest House, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France 7th January- 25th February 2017
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
Bibliography:
- MESCHEDE Friedrich (HG.), Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Bielefeld : Kerber Christof Verlag, september 2012, p.45.
- Seton Smith, essays by Welchman John, McGrath Patrick, Rowlands Penelope, Steinberg Claudia, p. 68-69
Chromogenic print
Image: 48 x 48 inches
Drawn and made by Tony Smith in 1951, this Guest House is a private property located in Guilford, Connecticut. Invited coincidentally in this house, Seton Smith was marked by this encounter with her father’s architectural minimalism. Hence, she made a series of four photographs named Guest House. Composed of bedrooms at each end, a bathroom and a central kitchen resting on pylons overhanging the Long Island Sound, this house represents the efficiency of modernism through its sober and humble design. Moreover, the view on the estuary fills with life the place, which appears as perched within space. Relying on this architectural minimalism, she occults it through the perspective, as a way to play with her familial architectural heritage.
Exhibitions:
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
- Winston Wachter Gallery, Seattle, Etats-Unis, 2007
Bibliography:
- FRANGNE Pierre Henry and LIMIDO Patricia, Les inventions photographiques du paysage, presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016, p. 28
- MESCHEDE Friedrich (HG.), Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Bielefeld : Kerber Christof Verlag, september 2012, p.50
Chromogenic print
Image: 48 x 48 inches
Drawn and made by Tony Smith in 1951, this Guest House is a private property located in Guilford, Connecticut. Invited coincidentally in this house, Seton Smith was marked by this encounter with her father’s architectural minimalism. Hence, she made a series of four photographs named Guest House. Composed of bedrooms at each end, a bathroom and a central kitchen resting on pylons overhanging the Long Island Sound, this house represents the efficiency of modernism through its sober and humble design. Moreover, the view on the estuary fills with life the place, which appears as perched within space. Relying on this architectural minimalism, she occults it through the perspective, as a way to play with her familial architectural heritage.
Exhibitions:
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Kunstmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 2013
- Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Germany, 2012
- Winston Wachter Gallery, Seattle, Etats-Unis, 2007
Bibliographie:
- FRANGNE Pierre Henry et LIMIDO Patricia, Les inventions photographiques du paysage, presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016, p. 28
- MESCHEDE Friedrich (HG.), Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Tony Smith, Bielefeld Kunsthalle, Bielefeld : Kerber Christof Verlag, septembre 2012, p.49
The American artist-photographer Seton Smith has lived between Paris and New York for several decades, and exhibitions in great American and European institutions have consistently honored her work. The Anne-Sarah Bénichou Gallery wishes to signal her return to the city which has nourished that work and where she became known with an exhibition of emblematic works shown in museums.
Seton Smith’s singular gaze, her distinctive way of seeing the world not subjectively, but through an objective lens, have assured her an unusual place on the contemporary art scene. To this she has added a quite legible signature of images that invite us along to her explorations of an intimate universe, at once close and distant, one of exteriors and interiors where any human presence is phantom, and where architectural elements, doorways and windows, rooms, corridors, and staircases are so many scrambled Hitchcockian shots where our gaze untiringly seeks ?ight to a vanishing point on a vague and infathomable horizon. Smith never brings too sharp a focus; rather, she practices distance without ever evading the eminently subjective nature of her subtle approach and sensitive, poetic, and analytic point of view. For 35 years now the artist has explored the recesses of architectural photography with a style whose constancy and visual discernment take nothing away from a formal enquiry evolving from year to year. The works presented in the gallery have been for the most part previously exhibited in museums, in particular an extensive retrospective of the Smith family at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany, the Abattoirs Toulouse in France, and Kunstmuseum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
To consult the catalogue of the exhibition, please click here