[Sep 5] Artist Presentation: Crystal Z. Campbell

Living on Hope for a Long Time

Crystal Z. Campbell

September 5, 2012, 7pm

Admission: FREE
Harvestworks
596 Broadway #602
New York, New York

LIVING ON HOPE FOR A LONG TIME

Crystal Z Campbell’s 5.1 sound piece, Living on Hope for Long Time, is based on the 1978 Jonestown Tragedy. Jonestown was a failed multicultural utopia of Americans who relocated to Guyana in the late 1970’s. Cult leader Jim Jones’ final plea to his nearly 1000 followers before convincing them to commit mass suicide lives on in the notorious “Death Tape.” Classically trained soprano Jennifer Connor adapts Jones’ plea in Living on Hope for a Long Time with a sonic tapestry of opera riffs, spoken word and musical theater.

BIO

Crystal Z Campbell uses tactics from sound, film, photography and site-specific installation to explore the politics of witnessing. Campbell’s works have been supported by de Appel, Project Row Houses, Exit Art, Islip Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, The New Children’s Museum of San Diego, Fotofest Biennial, Wave Hill, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Lui Velasquez in Tijuana, Rutgers University-Mason Gross Gallery and others. Campbell’s work will be included in Fore, the forthcoming group exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem, in November 2012. Campbell is a 2003 graduate of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and former artist-in-residence at NES in Iceland and Vermont Studio Center and Harvestworks.

Campbell is a 2010 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate in Visual Arts from the University of California-San Diego and a 2007 Master of Arts (MA) graduate in Africana Studies from SUNY-Albany. From 2010-2011, Campbell was a Van Lier Fellow in Studio Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in New York City. Campbell is currently a first-year artist in residence at Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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