KIKI SMITH: SELF-PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY: FROM 1990 TO 2014

This thesis examines how American contemporary artist Kiki Smith (b. 1954) has employed self-portrait photography in her work over a period of nearly twenty-five years. Smith stages elaborate performances before the lens that illuminate the corporeal manifestations of social hierarchies as they have shaped the representation of women and their creative histories in the western tradition. Through photography, the artist connects her contemporary practice with that of amateur women in the nineteenth century. Of particular interest in this thesis are those images in which Smith performs the role of Victorian woman, overt displays of the body in representation, and narrativized stereotypes of women artists in western culture. In her self-portrait photographs, Smith exposes culture's impact on her body in aesthetic, bodily, and textual representations. Further, Smith intervenes in the final image by altering and amplifying compositional elements in order to restructure their reception and facilitate interpretations that are multivalent.