Materializing Visions: Intersections of Technology and Spirituality in Cauleen Smith’s Give It or Leave It.

Enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee and join Isabelle Lynch, Penn History of Art PhD candidate, for a conversation about Cauleen Smith’s ICA exhibition Give It or Leave It.

The discussion will focus on the relationship between the visions, astral projections, and spectral visitations experienced by multi-instrumentalist, composer, and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane and Shaker Rebecca Cox Jackson and the material effects these figures had in shaping their communities. Within Smith’s installation these historical references are explored through an ecstatic mobility of sounds and images. Participants will consider how these encounters within Smith’s video environments and the other-worldly experiences that populate her artwork invite a reimagining of the social and political possibilities in the here-and-now as well as a different understanding of technological mediation.

Isabelle Lynch is a second-year doctoral student in History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania where she is specializing in contemporary time-based art including film, video, dance, and performance. She holds an MA in Art History at McGill University in Montreal and has worked at numerous arts institutions including Vancouver’s The Polygon Gallery, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Icelandic Art Center in Reykjavik.