“The internet poses significant problems in female representation, from pornography to the use of female form in advertising and notably the use of sexually violent language as a form of censorship and aggression towards female expression. Exquisite Corpse presents an array of female artists using both online and material forms for creativity, empowerment, and subversion, whilst reclaiming control of the representation of their bodies.”
Sarah Faraday, Curator, Exquisite Corpse, Fuse Art Space, Bradford, UK and Cologne, Germany
ARTIST STATEMENT
In 2015-16, I participated in Exquisite Corpse, an exhibition at Fuse Art Space in Bradford, UK and Cologne, Germany, featuring the work of hot (professionally hot, that is) fourth-wave feminist artists Rupi Kaur, Kate Durbin, Faith Holland, Poppy Jackson, Sue Williams, among others. The exhibition challenged the misrepresentation of the female form and identity on the internet. I screened Why, a film in which I utilized Google’s search engine’s autocomplete feature to find out what the masses wondered about me, an Asian woman, and discovered unsettling truths, fallacies, desires, and fears about many of us.
In conjunction with Exquisite Corpse, I took over Fuse Art Space’s Instagram account, posting from my series The Daily Pad–images created from Kotex products and blood–for six days, the duration of a period. The Daily Pad is a humorous, Dadaist challenge to those who view female sexuality, including menstruation, as a taboo to shame, censor, and silence. Sometimes the only rational response in the face of irrationality is to stop making sense.
— Julia Kim Smith
EXHIBITION
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 2020
Merkin Dream
Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art Gallery at Busboys And Poets, Washington, DC, 2016
Artists United!, Curators: Alan Fern, former director, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Mel Hardy, Millennium Arts Salon, Washington, DC; Michael Hodgson, MD, collector, Washington, DC; Charles Krause, Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art Gallery, Washington, DC; Susan Orlins, author and editor, Street Sense, Washington, DC; Alexssa Todd, Christie’s, New York
A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
In The Secret Garden, Curator: Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, Curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Gold + Beton, Cologne, Germany, 2016
Fuse Art Space, Bradford, UK, 2015
Exquisite Corpse, Curator: Sarah Faraday
Exhibiting Artists: Anastasia Vepreva, Evelin Stermitz, Faith Holland, Julia Kim Smith, Kate Durbin, Lacie Garnes, Poppy Jackson, Rupi Kaur, Sarah Faraday, Sheena Patel, Sue Williams
Fuse Art Space Instagram takeover: Julia Kim Smith - week of September 21, 2015
PUBLICATION
Beaver The Exhibition The Book, 2020
Forward by Kristen J. Sollée, Editor: Naomi Elena Ramirez
PRESS
Paper Magazine, Layne Weiss, “Exquisite Corpse: Inside Germany’s Powerful Feminist Exhibit,” February 2016
Dazed Digital, UK, Sooanne Berner, “After Cologne Sexual Attacks, Art Show Champions Women,” January 2016
artnet News, Sarah Hyde, “Cologne Art Show Celebrates Women In The Wake Of Attacks,” January 2016
this is tomorrow, UK, Alice Miller, “Exquisite Corpse,” September 2015
Corridor8, UK, Elspeth Mitchell, “Review: Exquisite Corpse, Fuse Art Space,” August 2015