STEPHANIE SMIEDT

Nike

In Nike, my latest body of work, I continue to explore the juxtaposition of collage and some of the world’s most devoured masterpieces. In an iconoclastic gesture the masterpieces I work with are erased, enhanced and retouched using a variety of methods, namely rust as a format for aging, graffiti and the deconstruction of collage.

Nike also seeks to investigate two strange meetings with the image of Nike, the Greek goddess of Victory, as the central and recurring motif. Nike as a word is, of course, one of the most recognisable brand names of the century. The brand was initiated by two American athletes in 1964 and drew heavily on the connection between Nike and the ancient Olympic games. In 1971 Caroline Davidson designed the now famous swoosh logo which represents the winged Nike in the strict geometric style common to seventies design. The connection to the goddess has been overshadowed and forgotten over time through the ubiquitous nature of the brand itself and its connections to shoes and sport. Nike's purpose is to re-invent this lineage and connection.

The art world, too, has an extremely famous Nike embodied in the celebrity Hellenistic masterpiece, Nike of Samothrace, which is housed in Paris’s Louvre. It is one of few surviving Greek examples of the genre and period. In my latest works I am trying to reclaim this Nike for art; to express the values of victory, strength and bravery that were attributed to the goddess and to the art devoted to her.

But is it that simple? In a contemporary media-scape, art institutions and art history itself must adjust to a competitive visual culture that does not guarantee any hierarchy of viewing. The Mona Lisa, for example, has a silhouette sign that allows short-of-time tourists to quickly navigate the Louvre to see, photograph and capture the world’s most famous painting. This silhouette, almost like a sovereign’s effigy on a stamp or coin, is designed for immediate recognition and consumption, much like a corporate logo. It subsumes all of the content and the social and historical significance that I am trying to reanimate in Nike. In the name of the art tourist even the Louvre worries little about such content. Similarly Nike of Samothrace has become a logo. The aura of the original is affected by its own ubiquity within the cultural landscape. Ostensibly, the Louvre now has its own Nike logo in this work of art.

The big question is whether the art viewer, when face-to-face with the Nike of Samothrace, receives it as a masterpiece or as an emblem of our contemporary culture (or anti-culture). Perhaps the answer lies in Nike Corporation’s own appropriation of the Nike of Samothrace on its T-shirt designs. Is this the final insult?

'Nike 03'

Oil and mixed media on linen

130 x 90 cm

$1,400

SOLD

'Nike 04'

Oil and mixed media on linen

130 x 90 cm

$1,400

SOLD

'Nike 08'

Oil and mixed media on linen

130 x 90 cm

$1,400

'Nike 11'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 90 cm

$850

'Nike 29'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 90 cm

$850

SOLD

'Nike 24'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 90 cm

$850

SOLD

'Nike 20'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 90 cm

$850

'Nike 21'

Oil and mixed media on linen

130 x 90 cm

$1,400

'Nike 22'

Oil and mixed media on linen

130 x 190 cm

'Nike 23'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 130 cm

$1,400

'Nike 25'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 130 cm

$1,400

'Nike 26'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 130 cm

$1,400

'Nike 27'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 130 cm

$1,400

SOLD

'Nike 28'

Oil and mixed media on linen

90 x 130 cm

$1,400

'Nike 30'

Oil and mixed media on linen

126 x 182 cm

$2,200

SOLD

Artists Bio