Souvenir Piece
1973 Acrylic paint on canvas mounted on wood, wood, acrylic paint, stones
These photos–taken by Ree herself–show her work Souvenir Piece installed at Artists Space in New York. There are various elements of this work that no longer exist. Visitors were able to move through and into the installation.
In this archival photo of Souvenir Piece you can see a low sculpture–a kind of ‘skateboard'. Unfortunately, this element has also disappeared.
In this detailed photo of Souvenir Piece’s platform–which gives an atmosphere of mystery due to its lighting – you can see details of the work’s wooden and stone elements. Ree chose these elements very carefully, paying careful regard to their respective shapes and surface patterns.
This photo shows another installation view of Souvenir Piece, in which the halved tree trunks –which were also part of the original installation– are partially placed vertically between the paintings. We do not know where and when the work was exhibited in this way. What is certain, however, is that Ree was responsible for the installation.
This sketch shows how Ree wanted to hang the six different paintings from Souvenir Piece.