LOS ANGELES, CA.- ICA LA's current exhibition, Barbara T. Smith: Proof —the first survey of the artist’s long career—spans nearly six decades from the 1960s to today and chronicles Smith's indelible contributions to the history of performance art and so much more. In addition to working in performance, Smith has always been a maker of things and an archivist of her output. Her unswervingly bold experimentation flows from her earliest paintings, Xerox prints, drawings, and sculptures to the wide range of objects and ephemera made for, and often resulting from, her performance art works. Together, they offer proof of a life lived as art.

On view at ICA LA until January 14, 2024, this presentation builds upon previous exhibitions of Smith's work at the Getty Research Institute (GRI), The Box, and other venues, further amplifying our understanding of her remarkable career. Published in conjunction with the exhibition, Smith’s first survey catalogue will be available in the New Year, containing a detailed chronology of Smith's body of work. Below, you'll find excerpts from this chronology highlighting bodies of work currently on view at ICA LA.

Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be

Since the 1960s, Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931, Pasadena) has been at the forefront of artistic movements in California. Her work explores concepts that strike at the core of human nature, including sexuality, physical and spiritual sustenance, technology, and death. In 2014, Glenn Phillips, curator and head of modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute (GRI), brought the archive of Barbara T. Smith into the institute's collection. In advance of this important acquisition, the artist, her assistants, her gallery representatives, and curators at the GRI culled through her extensive archive in order to organize and document the abundance of materials the artist saved, culminating in the 2023 exhibition, Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be, which focused on archival materials and works made until 1981 when the artist turned fifty. The documentary linked above, produced by the Getty, features Smith sharing highlights and personal anecdotes from her first fifty years, which were marked by dramatic upheavals in her personal life as well as the development of her most pioneering works, including her Xerox art and radical early performances.

60 Years of Barbara T. Smith

1966–1967: XEROX WORKS

In 1966, Smith leases a Xerox 914 photocopy machine, installs it in her dining room, and begins eight months of sustained experimentation. "I replicated all manner of objects. I made visual stories and stacks that, on specially designed clear plastic bases, became sculptures. I made series of images that became large, framed pieces. I wrote in lipstick on the glass, and I made images of my body, face, and hands, which became forerunners of my body performance work. I could not stop.” -Barbara T. Smith

1971: THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY SQUASH




While attending University of California, Irvine, with fellow artists Chris Burden and Nancy Buchanan, Smith founded the now legendary F-Space gallery. Here, Smith made many significant performances and created a new “religion” in the form of The Celebration of the Holy Squash. The week-long performance/passion play was Smith’s graduation exhibition. Smith's daily activations in the gallery included a baptism, celebrating Mass, miracles, persecutions, and conversions.

1969–1971: FIELD PIECE

Field Piece was included in Twenty-One Artists: Visible-Invisible, a 1972 group exhibition of women artists at Long Beach Museum of Art curated by Dextra Frankel and Judy Chicago. Smith waterproofed the blades, wires, and electronic consoles for the outdoor installation (over a six month period and at her own considerable expense). The work was vandalized; unable to afford repairs and storage fees, Smith decided to “unmake” Field Piece by selling individual blades as Dispersal. With few buyers, she dismantled and sold the components, and through “a series of secret giveaway actions” called Guerrilla Capers, she planted the blades at various sites.

1981: BIRTHDAZE

Jennie Klein describes this transformative performance in celebration of Smith’s fiftieth birthday: "By this time Smith had studied Buddhism and other types of Indian spirituality. She therefore used her relationships with men as a metaphor for the three stages of life that are described in many Eastern spirituality guides."

Birthdaze was a three-part performance that adapted the stages of life that feature prominently in many Eastern spiritual traditions: student, householder, renunciate. She corresponded these three stages to her relationships with men, both personal and professional. In part one, she embodied the roles she was raised to play, those of the conventional daughter, wife, and mother. In her 1950s housewife dress and hat, she was harassed by Paul McCarthy and Kim Jones, who inhabited their signature performance alter egos. In part two, Smith addressed past lovers Dick Kilgroe and Allan Kaprow. Kilgroe represented bodily passion; Kaprow cerebral union. In the background played a soundtrack of men relaying their experiences in Vietnam, a war that shaped many of Smith’s friends, lovers, and artistic cohort. In part three, Smith and fellow performance artist Vic Henderson communed in an inner room of the gallery where they engaged in a Tantric sexual ceremony.

1991–1993: THE 21st CENTURY ODYSSEY

The 21st Century Odyssey was a collaboration between Smith and her partner Dr. Roy L. Walford. It arose from a practical consideration: how the two could remain connected while Walford took part in an experiment in sustaining life on other planets. He would be sequestered for two years along with seven others at Biosphere 2 outside Tucson, Arizona. Drawing allusions to Homer’s Odyssey, Smith embarked on an international journey modeling herself as Odysseus to Walford’s Penelope. Smith traveled and made performances in each of the countries she visited, documenting her odyssey with video and various objects. The performances were relayed live to Biosphere 2 and Electronic Café International (ECI), in Santa Monica, with cutting‑edge telecommunication.

2005–2009: A MEDITATION ON TIME

"I respond to images that erupt in my psyche, and then I embody them in real time. An archetypal image of an older woman, all in white, knitting a long white thing that grew and grew over time emerged in my mind’s eye . . . As I knit, I don’t speak, but there is a book next to me. People can choose to approach me and if they have a question or comments, they can write them in the book, and I answer them by writing back so that my inner silence isn’t broken . . . So far, the longest duration of knitting has been five and a half hours. It is now over forty feet long, and expands its own history and meaning as time goes by . . . I’m hoping that my presence conveys a feeling of stability, humility, and wisdom. This is a piece that is never‑ending. It always has a potential future." -Barbara T. Smith