3 of 7 etchings in Porfolio: White Mammals 1998

Editor: Kiki Smith’s "3 of 7 etchings in Portfolio: White Mammals" presents two hanging figures rendered in delicate lines. The starkness of the image makes me a bit uneasy. What symbols do you see embedded in this piece? Curator: The stark presentation and hanging posture immediately evoke sacrifice, but what kind? Smith often explores vulnerability and the body. Consider the "white" in the title – it suggests purity, but also absence, like ghosts. Do you think these animals are victims or something else? Editor: Maybe the animals are intended to be emblems of fragility, forcing us to consider our own mortality. I hadn’t thought of the white suggesting absence before. Curator: Exactly! The image then becomes a meditation on what we fear losing and what we ultimately share with all living beings. Editor: I see how the symbols connect personal and universal anxieties. Thanks!