Cauleen Smith's 'The Volcano Manifesto' Premieres at MoMA, Artist Discusses Cave Motifs and Research Methods
Cauleen Smith's film 'The Volcano Manifesto' (2025) made its debut at MoMA's Doc Fortnight festival and was also presented at the BlackStar Film Festival. This nonlinear piece explores themes of resource extraction and the impacts of Western imperialism through its segments, including 'My Caldera' (2022), 'Mines to Caves' (2023), and 'The Deep West Assembly' (2024). Last year, her installation 'The Wanda Coleman Songbook' was showcased at 52 Walker in New York. Smith, while pursuing her MFA at UCLA, created her first feature, 'Drylongso' (1998), with the support of a $35,000 Rockefeller Media Fellowship grant. Her current exhibition, 'Cauleen Smith: Dusk of Dawn,' is on display at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art until December 13.
Key facts
- Cauleen Smith's film 'The Volcano Manifesto' premiered at MoMA's Doc Fortnight festival in 2025
- The film consists of three parts: 'My Caldera' (2022), 'Mines to Caves' (2023), and 'The Deep West Assembly' (2024)
- Smith's installation 'The Wanda Coleman Songbook' was presented at 52 Walker in New York in 2023
- Her debut feature 'Drylongso' (1998) was made with a $35,000 Rockefeller Media Fellowship grant while she was a UCLA MFA student
- Smith's work has been shown at Kunstverein in Amsterdam, Collective in Edinburgh, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Whitney Museum of American Art
- She references Édouard Glissant's 'Poetics of Relation' (1990) when discussing cave motifs in her work
- Smith examined Octavia Butler's commonplace books at the Huntington Library as part of her research process
- Her exhibition 'Cauleen Smith: Dusk of Dawn' is on view at Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art through December 13
Entities
Artists
- Cauleen Smith
- Dionne Audain
- Édouard Glissant
- Wanda Coleman
- Octavia Butler
- Sun Ra
- Plato
Institutions
- MoMA
- BlackStar Film Festival
- 52 Walker
- UCLA
- Rockefeller Media Fellowship
- Kunstverein
- Collective
- Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Met
- Huntington Library
- Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art
- ArtReview
- Barnes & Noble
Locations
- Los Angeles
- United States
- New York
- Amsterdam
- Netherlands
- Edinburgh
- Scotland
- United Kingdom
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- West Oakland
- California
- Downtown Los Angeles