“There is something really nice about transgressing your own image.”
—Kiki Smith
Banshee Pearls is Smith’s second lithographic work and contains her first depictions of her own likeness in her art. Starting in 1989 at Universal Limited Art Editions, Smith began to play with the idea of incorporating herself into her prints—a practice she consciously avoided in her sculptures. Each of the twelve prints is composed of several photographic states of Smith’s face that have been processed, altered, and recombined in both positive and negative registers. Some have been repeatedly photocopied until the subtleties of shadow are transformed into crude masks; others have been blown up beyond recognition. Smith utilized dozens of self-portraits for Banshee Pearls, occasionally holding the printing plates upright to create long drips of ink, even pressing her teeth against the photocopier to transfer one image onto a plate.
The prints, although created by photo-mechanical means, are intensely personal. They hark back to traditions based on mythic ritual in which each act of repetition is a new statement of respect and creation. In their repeated and tattered quality, the faces of Smith’s prints become talismanic, pushing the snapshot into the discomforting realm of the relic. The prints also recall the banshees of Irish folklore: female spirits who foretell death with a high-pitched wail. Smith’s father referred to her as a banshee as a teenager, and Banshee Pearls sees the artist embrace the moniker. “I made a celebration of being a death figure,” she remarked of the reclamation.
