Artworks

Barbara T. Smith

Holy Squash, 1971

Digital video transfer, altar fiberglass drawing and cast test tubes, bag with foam, spacing material in bag, plastic drop cloth with overspray, 3 foam sheets with overspray, 4 foam sheets, reliquary, sound, staff with fiberglass hand, old shoes used during production, miscellaneous items from production, shirt used during production, The Holy Squash and plastic casting of original offering flowers

Installed dimensions variable

(Inv# BTS15-005)

Holy Squash, 1971, is an installation centered around a relic (the squash) and its reliquary (the mold) as well as other objects used in Smith’s eight-day durational performance, Holy Squash Ceremony, which included a baptism and mass, based on the ideas of universal communion, and meaningful interaction.  In doing so, the performance examined the gender hegemony latent in the Judeo-Christian religious traditions, seeking to counter this through the creation of  a more female-centered alternative. Made against the backdrop of a male-dominated art world in Los Angeles, Smith’s Holy Squash Ceremony, and her other seminal performances from this period were pioneering in their development of a new relationship to the performance audience, often using the viewer as a vital component for the exploration of the body, ritual, nurturing, sexuality, female desire, spiritual transformation, love and death.