How I Know I'm Here was conceived and the four linoleum blocks cut by Smith in 1985, the same year she made the hand-colored silk screened portfolio of prints titled Possession is Nine-tenths of the Law. Like that print, How I Know I'm Here is made in sections, with each sheet of both editions depicting numerous human organs and floating body parts. But unlike Possession..., How I Know I'm Here was only proofed in 1985. It was not actually editioned until 2000, when Smith revisited the project at our request. As it turned out, she decided not to make any changes at all to the blocks. Her happiness with the original drawing and cutting was solid, and the only large decisions left to make regarded color, which she decided was going to be a very deep Indigo blue. The Indigo color used was so saturated that at a glance it looks black. But upon closer inspection, clues to it's blueness can be seen in various parts of the print where the fibers of the paper occasionally expose it.

How I Know I'm Here is exhibited as one long horizontal frieze. The print is presented almost as a narrative. The eye travels along the length of the image and delves back and forth between the scenery, sometimes stopping in a particularly dense section of lines depicting muscles, veins and nerves, and sometimes stopping on a face or pair of hands performing various activities. In fact, there are two pairs of hands in each panel, but because they are only printed in line, they have the effect of receding into the action. This combination of internal and external , of surface and interior, has proven to be a recurring theme in the artist's work. It is a dense, luxurious and rich print, grand in scale and a beautiful example of Smith's drawing abilities. How I Know I'm Here is included in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and will be included in the artist's retrospective of editioned work at the Museum of Modern Art, NY in 2003-04.

Other artworks by Kiki Smith


Veins & Arteries, 1993


Europa, 2001-2005


The Vitreous Body, 2000

Egg and Yolk, 1996

Virgin Mary Poster, 1992

Untitled (#7), 1992

Meathead, 1992

Cause I'm On My Time #1, 1992

Cause I'm On My Time #4, 1990

Untitled (#15), 1992