Blood Pool

In sculptures such as Blood Pool, Kiki Smith created uncomfortable, life-size figures that challenge and extend the tradition of human representation by treating the body as the site of biological, genetic, social, and political battles. Composed of wax, which Smith favors for its malleability, Blood Pool evokes the texture and color of flesh. Although the point of departure for her pieces is literal—she always works from casts of live models—the figure, with its fetal pose and exposed spine, becomes a primal emblem that engages viewers in issues of individual and collective health and disease, heroization and victimization, and life and death (particularly because of the dual potential of human blood in the era of AIDS).