黑料不打烊

Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Barbara T. Smith鈥檚 seminal 1971 work Holy Squash at 394 Broadway. 

Belonging to Smith鈥檚 extensive experiments with resin from the 1970s, the Holy Squash is an installation comprised of objects utilized in a durational performance titled Holy Squash Ceremony, which was centered around a large Hubbard Squash that Smith adopted as an object of worship. Reported to local newspapers at the time as an authentic religious ceremony, the performance鈥檚 participants, referred to as disciples or converts, held a mass and baptism as they built a mold to cast the decaying squash over the course of eight days. The resulting resin cast is positioned as a holy relic and displayed alongside its mold, now a reliquary, surround by ephemera, clothing, and objects also utilized in the performance, which Smith describes as containing 鈥渕iracles, persecutions, and betrayals.鈥� Part of a larger inquiry into ritual and community within Smith鈥檚 practice, Holy Squash examines the latent gender hegemony in the Judeo-Christian religious traditions and suggests a female-centered alternative.