Alicia Smith-Where Fireflies yet shine : on death and dark matter
Bio : Alicia Smith is a Xicana multidisciplinary artist currently based in Oklahoma City. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Oklahoma with an emphasis in Contemporary Sculpture and Printmaking and her Masters of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work utilizes ancestral prayer technologies, oral tradition, Indigenous Futurism and New Weird Science Fiction to interrogate colonial narratives and explore identity. Through this practice she advocates for cultural perpetuity as a response to the unfolding anthropocene.
Artist Statement: Through her project "Toci", the story of a group of Aztec women who escape the colonization of Mexico by establishing a space colony on Mars, Alicia Smith has been reflecting on the delicate balance between existence and oblivion. As these women live in such a hostile environment, they must rely on each other and the organisms they brought with them for their survival. Their survival, which is also predicated on their observations and understanding of this planet, its life and history, and their place within it. Living so closely to death they must adapt their personal experiences, technologies, and traditions to this new setting. My ancestors believed the darkness of space was the darkness we all emerged from and the darkness we all returned to. We had many ways of personifying it, from Tzitzimime, Star Demonesses, to Citlalicue, Skirt-Of-Stars, to Mictecacihuatl, The Lady of the Underworld. What would Hueymiccailhuitl, the traditional festival of the dead which became Dia De Los Muertos, look like on Mars? How would it change? How does grief behave like Dark Matter? Through this exhibition she explores the mysteries of life, death and the cosmos as well as critically examines the implications of the current discourse around the colonization of Mars. Fireflies are just one of many species impacted by our "fairy tales of eternal economic growth" and in Toci, one of the species who is saved.
Link to your website/social media:
Instagram: @AliciaSmithArt
Favorite Poem Currently/ Title of the exhibition:
"Where Fireflies Yet Shine" comes from the work of 2 poets. Rebecca Elson who is also an astrophysicist and Richard Selzer who is also a doctor. In her poem "1992" Rebecca Elson writes about the challenges of studying something with indirect detection (as it only interacts with things through its gravitational force and doesn't emit photons):
Explaining Dark Matter
As if all there were, were fireflies
And from them you could infer the meadow
**Side note: I love that she used something that gives light, the Luciferin of Fireflies, to describe detecting Dark Matter which doesn't emit, absorb or reflect light).
Since matter only makes up 5% of the universe, and 95% is something invisible to us, it's a potent comparison in scale as well.
Richard Selzer writes about the process of dying:
“You do not die all at once, some tissues live on for minutes, even hours, giving still their little cellular shrieks, molecular echoes of the agony of the whole corpus . . . There are outposts where clusters of cells yet shine, besieged, little lights blinking in the advancing darkness. Doomed soldiers, they battle on. Until Death has secured the premises all to itself.”
What's been going on in your world and circles lately?
I've been teaching at OU again and it's been a wonderful semester. I'm also in a little show in Oklahoma City "Herencia" with other Xicano artists in Oklahoma so I'm very excited for that and in November will be doing some art making at the Norman Public Library. I'm extremely honored that I will have work on Project for Empty Space's mobile exhibition "BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY)" also.
Anything in particular you've been working on?
For Chapter 2 of the project I wanted to make a cape out of corn husks but using a backstrap loom (traditional weaving from Mexico) for something like that wouldn't really work because it would crush the husks, so I had to research Maori, Haida and Navajo weaving techniques which was a lot of fun. I built myself a standing/tapestry loom and am completely hooked. Like, I made cloth from a bunch of string!? The next thing for Chapter 2 is a ceramic Axolotl effigy/sentinel. But I'm also wanting to play more with all these materials I'm using to maybe make work that isn't regalia or props for the video project but are stand alone pieces inspired by the same concepts. What I started exploring with this show at Oscillator honestly. This is extremely difficult for me lol because I need a story haha there has to be some logic. I envy people who are just intuitive with collaging images and materials who don't let anything hold them back. It's going to be challenging but I want to try.
Tips, Tricks, Techniques?
Take good care of your hands! Bone broth, tiger balm and good salves. Ginger on my whole life lol.
Other projects you see happening around that are cool?
Entirely too many. I saw Marguerite Humeau's work at the last Venice Biennale and I strive to be that awesome. Alejandro Garcia Contreras has an amazing show up at Pioneer Works in NYC right now which makes my brain explode. Candice Lin, who I had the privilege of working with when I was an artist in residence at Banff a few years ago is exhibiting at MUMA "The Sex Life of Stone" looks incredible. I wish it will still be up when I plan to visit Australia next year. Terra Keck at Field Projects <3.
Any stories you want to share?
Stop me if you've heard the one about a group of Aztec women who escape the colonization of Mexico by flying a pyramid to Mars.
Future thing you are looking forward to?
I will be traveling to New Zealand and Australia next summer to get some footage for Chapter 4 of the project.
Favorite bands / albums lately?
I can't stop listening to "Triassic Love Song" by Paris Paloma. I think because its about an amphibian and mammal holding each other while they're dying and that feels like very Chapter 2 of my project.
Visual artists (or whatever people) you've been digging lately?
Names I can't stop writing in my journal:
Jacqueline Surdell, Elise Wehle, Catherine Blackburn, Cathy Hirchenhahn, Jemila Macewan, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Dominique Rousseau, Phuong Nguyen, Klara Hosnedlova and Rachel Marks.
Links to anything you're involved in you want to share?https://www.bodyfreedomforeverybody.org/ !!!
Anything else?
Thank ya'll for having me again and letting me try some new things! Exhibiting is one of the only ways a lot of artists can get feedback for their work outside of academia. Its really helpful and I appreciate what you guys do!
