In this gallery installation of new work, Allison Smith presents more than 100 wooden rifles wall-mounted in decorative patterns, in the spirit of an arms exposition hall. On the floor lays a row of 8 commemorative dolls in the artist’s image at life scale. Formally based on the construction of 19th-century porcelain dolls, each doll body is made of stuffed linen, with head and limbs made by Smith at a ceramics atelier in southern France. The doll costumes represent obscure historical figures and amateur citizen soldiers of the American Civil War. The exhibition also includes a public address written in calligraphic script and a series of small gouaches.

Smith recently organized and directed The Muster, a gathering of the troops in her artistic and queer communities, generated by the question “What are you fighting for?” The Muster was a project of the Public Art Fund.

Other recent exhibitions include her performative installation Armory, at The Armory Show, and P.S.1’s Greater New York 2005. She has upcoming artist residencies at Grizedale Arts in the Lakes District, England; and ArtPace, in San Antonio, Texas.

Allison Smith was born in Manassas, Virginia in 1972. She received a BA in psychology from the New School for Social Research (1995), a BFA from Parsons School of Design (1995), and an MFA from Yale University School of Art (1999). She participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (1999-2000).