In Conversation: Cauleen Smith and Tisa Bryant on Give It Or Leave It

CalArts faculty Cauleen Smith will discuss her exhibition ‘Give It Or Leave It’ with fellow CalArts faculty Tisa Bryant.

Artist and CalArts faculty Cauleen Smith’s exhibition Give It Or Leave It is currently installed at LACMA, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the museum is closed. One of the only ways the public has been able to experience Smith’s show is through the artist’s Confabulations Series, which features conversations between Smith and guest artists. 

For the second event in the series, Smith discusses Give It Or Leave It with Tisa Bryant, writer and director of the Creative Writing Program at CalArts. The artists will dive into the topics of spirituality, creativity, and utopianism—the themes from Smith’s exhibition. 

Installation photograph, Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It. | © Cauleen Smith, Photo taken by Constance Mensh for the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Give It Or Leave It features film, video, and sculpture related to The Vedantic Center, an ashram started by Alice Coltrane; a photograph of nine dapper black men taken at the Watts Towers in 1966 by Bill Ray; and the 19th-century black spiritualist Rebecca Cox Jackson, who was the Eldress of the first black Shaker community in Philadelphia. 

The virtual event takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 6 pm PT, and is free. For access to the event, RSVP via LACMA’s website. 

Later this week, Smith is also participating in Photography as Revolutionary Aesthetic: An LA Artist Conversation. Hosted online by the Getty Museum on Thursday (Feb. 25), at 5 pm PT, Smith will join Todd Gray and Ken Gonzales-Day to discuss their photo-based practices and “how they integrate concepts of identity and explore the tensions between refusal and inclusion.”

The virtual event is free, but advance sign-up is required. 

Related: Cauleen Smith’s Give It Or Leave It to Open at LACMA