Cauleen Smith: Breaking Cinema. Experimental Film 2010–2023

Operating in multiple materials and arenas, interdisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith (b. 1967) roots her work firmly within the discourse of mid-twentieth-century experimental film. Drawing from structuralism, moving images, and science fiction, she makes things that deploy the tactics of these disciplines while offering a phenomenological experience for spectators and participants. The book Breaking Cinema. Experimental Film 2010–2023, adds to the growing scholarship on Cauleen Smith’s work, as art historian Romi Crawford elucidates a critical phase of the artist’s career and how Smith recasts film history in the context of the artistic and cultural ferment of Chicago’s South Side.