Details

Object type

sculpture; construction

Title

Autel du chat mort

Artist/Maker

Niki de Saint Phalle artist

Materials

mixed media

Dimensions

overall: 2908 mm x 2502 mm x 876 mm

Description

Sculpture entitled 'Autel du chat mort' (Altar of the dead cat) by Niki de St Phalle. Mixed media construction.

Niki de Saint Phalle is internationally recognised as a pioneer in exploring emotion from a feminist point of view, primarily drawing on her own experiences to develop themes of love, childhood, sex, childbirth, nurturing and death in her work. ‘Autel du chat mort’ is a work from a series of shooting paintings, titled ‘Tirs’, meaning ‘to fire’ or gunshot in French.

In these assemblages- where dolls, toy cars, shoes guns, snakes and stuffed animals were embedded in plaster containing bags or cans of paint - the artist or invited spectators shot at the work, releasing the paint, splattering it over the work. Through her work she expressed her anger on what had happened to her in her life - including her strict Catholic upbringing and abuse by her father. The artist herself commented on these works: ‘I was shooting at myself, society with its injustices. I was shooting at my own violence and the violence of the times. By shooting at my own violence, I no longer had to carry it inside of me like a burden.’

Niki de Saint Phalle stopped making these works in 1963, explaining ‘I had become addicted to shooting, like one becomes addicted to a drug’. She felt it was beginning to impinge on her freedom.

ID Number

S.391

Location

In storage