Banshee Pearls

Banshee Pearls is Smith's second lithographic work. Each of the twelve prints is composed of several photographic states of Smith's face that have been processed, altered, and recombined. Some have been rephotocopied until the subtleties of shadow are transformed into crude masks; others have been blown up beyond recognition. The prints, although created by photo-mechanical means, are intensely personal; they hark back to traditions based on mythic ritual in which each act of repetition is a new statement of respect and creation. In their repeated and tattered quality, the faces of Smith's prints become talismanic. She has pushed the snapshot into the discomforting realm of the relic.