In honor of Women’s History Month and in collaboration with our current exhibition, Vision and Power, we would like to present the work of one artist in our permanent collection, whose solo show is currently on view at The Contemporary Austin in Austin, Texas.
Sable Elyse Smith is a prolific interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work examines language, violence, pop culture, and oppressive systems. As described on her website, “she has built a practice tracing the threads of violence and power embedded within systems of belief, infrastructure, language, intimacy, the quotidian, and beyond.”
This thread is revealed in Riot III, Smith’s piece in our permanent collection, and currently on view in Austin. Composed of six rods affixed to round plates, mimicking a toy jack, the sculpture has an institutional quality and references prison stools. In a typical prison setting, the fixed, static stools prevent visitors from rearranging furniture and getting closer or more intimate.
As Smith explains to Janelle Zara for Art Basel, the table “design seems normal and neutral: a tabletop with stools connected to it. But the dimensions are skewed for visibility purposes. The tabletop comes very close to your knees, so it’s harder for people to pass things under the table. Surveillance is baked into the design. The production of these tables is also a billion-dollar industry and, for that industry to thrive, they need bodies to populate them.”
Other work by Smith includes repurposed pages from a coloring book she found, intended to introduce children to the criminal court system. By appropriating features such as a “Judge Friendly” character, Smith adds her own satirical commentary that highlights the reality of the carceral system.
While she does not directly address prisons, she responds to the ways in which the spaces are created to erase any sense of humanity or control. For audiences who may not have any relationship to the prison or carceral systems, Smith’s work provides an accessible way to understand the intent of these systems and how they impact society.
In addition to Smith’s sculptural and color book works, she also includes neon, filmmaking, and writing in her repertoire. As a Black artist working at the intersection of art, social justice, and education, Smith is an exceptional example of Bader+Simon’s mission and of the ways in which art can shed insight and shift perspectives.
We encourage you to learn more about this amazing artist and enjoy her art.