Money by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Mickey Smith

Currently residing in: Minneapolis, MN

Website: http://www.mickeysmithart.com

Work Statement:
The three images submitted to Hot Shots are from my current project, called Volume. I seek out and photograph these titles as I find them on the shelves of public libraries. I do not manipulate, light, or touch the books, preferring to document them as created by the librarian and positioned by the last user.

Searching endless stacks, I am continually struck by physical mass of information and tenuousness of printed works as they fade from public consciousness. The irony and graphic quality of repeating titles fascinate and draw, no matter how mundane, from known to obscure, from Vogue to Blood. I photograph titles that are flirtatious, utilitarian, and personally or socially symbolic.

I am inspired by many artists, but particularly drawn to the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Barbara Kruger, and Edward Ruscha.

Bio:
Mickey Smith was born in 1972 in Duluth, Minnesota. She received a BA in Photography from University of Minnesota, Moorhead. Works from her most recent project, Volume, have shown at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in Saint Paul, Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh and the Society for Contemporary Photography in Kansas City. Smith is the current recipient of the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Photography and a FORECAST Public Artworks Grant.