BLOOD was first exhibited at the Minnesota Center for Photography 20 years ago. Since then, life has unfolded in ways I could never have imagined: marriage, motherhood, a move to New York City, the birth of my son, relocation to New Zealand, widowhood, remarriage and a temporary return to Minnesota for my son’s education. The distance between that young woman who made the photograph and the person I am today is marked by love, loss, sacrifice and endurance. The work itself has traveled internationally to China, Russia, Los Angeles and New York — and has finally found its place, as have I, in Aotearoa.

Mickey Smith (US/NZ) is an award winning conceptual artist and photographer. For over two decades, her practice has been engaged with a longstanding inquiry into libraries, books and archives — in particular the social significance of their physical existence or disappearance.

Smith’s work has been exhibited internationally and belongs to numerous public and private collections including the Arts House Trust, Molly Morpeth Canaday, Museum of Modern Art Library, North Dakota Museum of Art, Sheldon Museum of Art and Weisman Art Museum. She is the recipient of grants and awards from Americans for the Arts, CEC Arts Link, Creative New Zealand, Forecast Public Art and McKnight Foundation. Her acclaimed touring exhibition, Morphologies, is currently traveling through the United States and New Zealand.