Alexandria Smith: Splitting
Catalog essay for the solo exhibition Alexandria Smith: A Litany for Survival, 2019.
Curated by Lynne Cooney, Boston University Art Galleries
Artists throughout time have used identical twins, doppelgängers, and mirror imagery to represent the divided self, to comment on the experience of simultaneously embodying two personas or positions, to communicate feelings of otherness, or to symbolize “an experience of crisis.” Alexandria Smith carries this trope into the future in a new suite of paintings in which she explores the concept of doubling. Using the feminine figure as a point of departure, she depicts cycloptic twins with black, purple, and bluish skin tones. Facing each other in profile, they appear locked in a mirroring gaze as if engaged in telepathic conversation. The figures are sometimes reminiscent of Rorschach tests, like the canvas was folded in half to create the second figure, suggesting that these are not individual beings but two sides of the same person, the self and the ego. You could speculate on many dualities here and draw all sorts of conclusions about how these figures embody the artist’s psyche. This would not be the first time that Smith’s work prompted questions about her subconscious. Two years ago, her paintings and collages centered on the mental and emotional processes of self-discovery; her new work is even more personal, reflecting a period of intense introspection.