This interview with New York artist Michael Smith serves as an introduction to his work in video and performance from 1978 to the present, focusing on his two recurring characters: Mike, a hapless everyman, and Baby Ikki, a pacifier-sucking, sunglasses-wearing baby of ambiguous age. Smith inserts these characters into particular scenarios, either real or constructed, in ways that can be seen as responses to broader issues in contemporary society. Baby Ikki has visited Burning Man, been out and about on city streets and thrown a birthday party replete with a clown; Mike has had an art career, started a business and built a basement fallout shelter. 

 

Regardless of the scenario, neither character ever quite fits in. Mike is too credulous, too studied in his attempts to get into the swing of things. The Baby is also out of sync, mimicking those around it without seeming to understand the implications of its actions. In their guileless attempts to navigate the complexities of contemporary life, Michael Smith's characters reveal the underlying absurdity of what we think of as 'normal.'

 

Shot and edited by Dylan Steinberg. dreammachinecreative.com 

 

This video features the following works: 

 

Baby Ikki

1978

Michael Smith

Videotaped by Nild Sansone as part of "Thursdays is a Work of Art Series." Production: Sidewalk Inc., Hartford Connecticut, 1978. Special Thanks: Robert Gregson.

Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix

 

Go For It, Mike

Michael Smith

Director/Camera: Mark Fischer. Music: Mark Bingham, A. Leroy. Lyrics: Michael Smith. Producers: Michael Smith and Mark Fischer, Mike and Mark Productions, for the Electronic Arts Archives and Research Institute, Texas Tech University.

1984

Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix

 

'Sales Pitch' from Open House Reel

Michael Smith and Joshua White

2000

Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix

 

Famous Quotes From Art History

Michael Smith

2001-2003

Produced for Tokyo TV, Palais de Tokyo

 

 

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