Cauleen Smith: Mutualities

Across her body of work, Smith foregrounds artists and thinkers who influence her practice, creating a communal exchange of ideas that reflects her discursive method of working. For her new series of drawings, Firespitters, Smith invited a group of poets to send her two photographs: one in which they hold their own books, and one in which they hold the book of another poet whose work is meaningful to them. 

In the drawings, she illustrates both the book covers and the hands of the poets who selected them, reflecting the embodied labor of literary production. The authors’ selections also encapsulate the notion of mutuality that is at the crux of this exhibition. For example, poet Dionne Brand is the author of The Blue Clerk, which is the selection of another invited poet, Natalie Diaz.