Crystal Z. Campbell: Experimental Film

Crystal Z Campbell

Experimental film is of the most boundary pushing new art forms to the contemporary scene. Though rather underground and lowkey, it is a genre that similarly reclaims and reconstructs narratives. Crystal Z. Campbell, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the latest experimental film visual artists to arrive on modernity’s scene. 

Campbell, amongst being an experimental film and multidisciplinary artist, is an avid writer of “African-American, Filipino, & Chinese descents.” Their narratives and most recent works question medical ethics, and explore the concept of immortality. Currently a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Art Fellow, several works of Campbell have been screened and exhibited around the world.

Campbell’s Body of Work

Model Citizen, their last exhibition from 2019, is a nuanced combination of 5 banners, 3 videos and a live performance. Campbell uses a salvaged 35 mm film, found in a “Black Civil Rights Theatre” in Brooklyn, to achieve the powerfully haunting effects of the film Go-Rilla Means War, produced back in 2017.

Go-rilla is a 20-minute video, installed in a specifically painted and arranged exhibition space, which was a significant part of the piece. The piece poignantly confronts race and the 1960s Civil Rights movement. They are scheduled to speak at the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies (remotely) at the beginning of March.

Campbell’s upcoming and anticipated project is SLICK. The piece focuses on Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 1921 Race Massacres. It is slated to be an experimental film exploring the effects of the Massacres on Tulsa. The project is under their fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute.

Campbell’s recent writings similarly confront racial uprisings and protests that happened in Summer 2020. More specifically, Juneteenth, a day dedicated “to celebrating emancipated Black slaves” in the United States Was, captured in text and on film by Campbell. In all forms of creation, this artistis a force to be reckoned with.