The Cinematheque

“Everything I make is just an offering. I think of my work as a contribution to the histories of Black diasporas and our powers of invention, survival and generativity.”

Cauleen Smith

In The Fullness of Time, American artist Cauleen Smith repurposes the languages of physicists and astronomers to decode the rage, grief, elation, and hope that surround the post-Katrina reality of New Orleans. This work was created three years after the hurricane and considers environmental and social disaster in relation to intense human influence on our planet. A ​“sister from another planet” is sent to Earth to explore the terrain and learn our ways. As she wanders the streets of the city, the viewer is left to wonder if this solitary character is indeed an alien, or perhaps just one more person trying to make sense of the passage of time, the enormity of loss, and our tentative future landscapes. —Tobin Gibson