Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It

Bys: Anastas, Rhea, McMillian, Rodney, Elms, Anthony

A multimedia portrait of four famed utopian sites celebrating a Black, spiritual America

Through films, objects, and installation, Chicago-based filmmaker Cauleen Smith (born 1967) offers an emotional axis by which to navigate four distinct universes: Alice Coltrane and her Sai Anantam ashram; a 1966 photo shoot by Bill Ray at Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in Los Angeles; Noah Purifoy and his desert assemblages in Joshua Tree; and black spiritualist Rebecca Cox Jackson and her Shaker community in 19th-century Philadelphia.

These locations, while not technically utopian societies, embody sites of historical speculation and radical generosity between artist and community. In reimagining a future through this mix, Smith casts a world that is black, feminist, spiritual and unabashedly alive.

This volume, wrapped in a frosted and foil-stamped dust jacket, contains full-color photographs of the multi-room installation and provides further insight into Smith's creative process and myriad influences through two interviews and a manifesto written by the artist.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884541460
• ISBN13: 9780884541462
• Release Date: October 2019
• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.7" x 9.0"