Cauleen Smith at Whitney Museum of American Art

This exhibition is the first solo New York presentation of multi-disciplinary artist Cauleen Smith (b. 1967), whose work, which was featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, draws on elements of poetry, science fiction, and non-Western cosmologies to reflect on Afro-diasporic histories and new models of self-reliance and agency. The exhibition features two recent films, newly acquired for the Whitney’s collection, in an installation that reimagines the future as a utopian space of care, acceptance, and mutuality. In Sojourner, women carry six banners bearing words by the jazz composer and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane, whose music forms the soundtrack for both films. The women walk in procession through locations including Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Art Museum in Joshua Tree. Pilgrim traces the artist’s pilgrimage to Coltrane’s ashram, Watts Towers in Los Angeles, and Rebecca Cox Jackson’s Shaker communities in Philadelphia and Watervliet. In both films, Smith uses the camera and light as improvisational instruments to reveal the power of invention and generosity as resources to transform and rebuild.

Concurrent with Cauleen Smith: Mutualities, from March 5 through May 13, High Line Art will present Signals from Here, an exhibition of Cauleen Smith’s video work. Screening evenings on the park at 14th Street, the program includes Three Songs About Liberation (2017), Crow Requiem (2015), Lessons in Semaphore (2015), H-E-L-L-O (2014), and Songs for Earth and Folk (2013).

Cauleen Smith: Mutualities is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, with Clémence White, senior curatorial assistant.

Cauleen Smith (b. 1967) draws on experimental film, non-Western cosmologies, poetry, and science fiction to create works that reflect on memory and Afro-diasporic histories. Mutualities, the artist’s first solo show in New York, presents two of Smith’s films, Sojourner and Pilgrim—each in a newly created installation environment—along with a new group of drawings collectively titled Firespitters.

The films unfold across several important sites in Black spiritual and cultural history, weaving together writings by women from different eras, including Shaker visionary Rebecca Cox Jackson, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, the 1970s Black feminist organization Combahee River Collective, and experimental jazz composer and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane, whose music also forms the soundtrack for both films. Smith’s poetic use of the camera and light draws the viewer into a welcoming and accepting space that reveals the many ways in which invention and generosity can be resources for transformation and regeneration.

Cauleen Smith: Mutualities is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, with Clemence White, senior curatorial assistant.

Installation view of Cauleen Smith: Mutualities (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17–May 17, 2020). From left to right: Alexis Holds Audre Lorde, 2020; Natalie Diaz, 2020; Natalie Holds Dionne Brand, 2020; Gregg Bordowitz, 2020; Gregg Holds Robert, 2020; Latasha Gave Me African Sleeping Sickness, 2020; Krista Franklin, 2020; Krista Holds Terrance, 2020; Dionne Holds Sylvia D. Hamilton, 2020; Dionne Brand, 2020. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Cauleen Smith: Mutualities (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17–May 17, 2020). From left to right: Pilgrim, 2017; Halimufack (chasing after Zora), 2019. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Cauleen Smith: Mutualities (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17–May 17, 2020). From left to right: Space Station: Charmed and Strange, 2019; Sojourner, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Cauleen Smith: Mutualities (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17–May 17, 2020). Pilgrim, 2017. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Cauleen Smith: Mutualities (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17–May 17, 2020). Pilgrim, 2017. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Cauleen Smith, still from Pilgrim, 2017. Video, color, sound; 7:41 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase, with funds from the Film and Video Committee

Cauleen Smith, still from Pilgrim, 2017. Video, color, sound; 7:41 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase, with funds from the Film and Video Committee

Cauleen Smith, still from Pilgrim, 2017. Video, color, sound; 7:41 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase, with funds from the Film and Video Committee

Cauleen Smith, still from Pilgrim, 2017. Video, color, sound; 7:41 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase, with funds from the Film and Video Committee

Cauleen Smith, still from Sojourner, 2018. Video, color, sound; 22:41 min. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York

Cauleen Smith, still from Sojourner, 2018. Video, color, sound, 22:41 min. Courtesy the artist, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, and Kate Werble Gallery, New York

Cauleen Smith, Natalie Holds Dionne Brand, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Natalie Diaz, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Latasha Gave Me African Sleeping Sickness, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Krista Holds Terrance Hayes, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Krista Franklin, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Gregg Holds Robert Duncan, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Gregg Bordowitz, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Dionne Holds Sylvia D. Hamilton, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Dionne Brand, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman

Cauleen Smith, Alexis Holds Audre Lorde, 2020, from the ongoing series Firespitters. Gouache, graphite, and acrylic ink on paper, 12 × 9 in. (30.48 × 22.68 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman