Interview Sally Smart

TIARNEY MIEKUS

You’ve created works questioning gender and identity since the 1990s, a moment when identity politics really entered contemporary art. Does it feel different thinking about those questions today?

SALLY SMART

No, not really. I think because I’m different and because the early practice was when I was a student, so it was more theoretical in study. But previous to that was the 70s second generation of feminism and I followed after. Maybe I’d see the difference being greater between the 70s and 90s, than [the 90s] to now. So I’ve lived through [feminist movements] and while the work has changed, I’ve always been very certain that I didn’t need to be making work that had to look like ‘something particular’ to be a feminist. Somebody was reminding me of my early work the other day going, “You were [making overtly feminist works]!” It didn’t seem to me that they were more radical then, than they are now. It seems it’s the same in that the issues are the same: the life lived as a woman are the same demands. Also, I think it was much more theoretical to me then, and