Produced by Acria, 2017
Three-color screen print on Coventry rag paper
56 x 48 cm / 22 x 17 inches
Edition of 75, signed, dated, and numbered
Proceeds benefit ACRIA: Artists Ending AIDS Fund
Mining from a range of art historical movements including symbolism, surrealism, and pop art, Emily Mae Smith’s practice often pokes at masculinity and female gender norms through her paintings. In Chekhov’s Gun, Smith presents her own interpretation of the dramatic principle Chekhov’s Gun, which states that every element in a story is essential, removing all unnecessary parts — for example a gun that appears on stage in the first act must be used in the final act.
Smith presents a beautiful blue sky, with a smoking gun in distinct pop aesthetic, surrounded by threatening white teeth; a recurrent motif that Smith describes as “a cartoon for a hyper masculine man-splain[ing] mouth—like an early 20th century tycoon, bared teeth blabbing wide.”