Barbara T. Smith: Rocks, Weeds, Dirt

As Cirrus celebrates its 50th anniversary, we are honored to present a new work by Barbara T. Smith, Rocks, Weeds, Dirt. One of the first artists to adopt the media of xerography, Smith reengages with flatbed photographic technology, here placing rocks, weeds, and dirt on the glass of a flatbed scanner—reprising early works in which she positioned fabric, objects, photographs, and her own body on the glass of a leased Xerox 914 photocopy machine. Rocks, Weeds, Dirt uses the sheer physicality of mineralogical and vegetal materials to speak to the artist’s deep sense of commonality in the world. The work recalls the allusion to weeds in Smith’s seminal work at Cirrus in 1971, Field Piece, a grid of one hundred and eighty 9-foot tall translucent fiberglass “blades of grass.” This new release, Rocks, Weeds, Dirt, pictures a discreet gathering of materials that speak to both the concrete materiality of our existence, and her existential amazement of our shared embodiment in the world.

Barbara T. Smith is a foundational figure in West Coast performance art. She was born in 1931 in Pasadena, did undergraduate work in painting, art history, and religion at Pomona College and received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine in 1971. Smith was a founding member of F-Space Gallery in Irvine, where her early performances emphasized ceremony and corporeality. Early pieces by Smith, including Ritual Meal (1969), Feed Me (1973), and Celebration of the Holy Squash (1971) have become iconic in the history of performance and are legendary examples of the artist’s demanding yet generous work.