Crystal Z Campbell

Viewfinder (2018)

I was fortunate to be artist in residence at Self-Care, Then and Now (2018) in Varberg, Sweden. I jumped at the opportunity to participate in the residency because it would be my first time visiting Sweden. There was a thoughtful structure in place around the concept of Self-Care, and there was the opportunity to travel back for a presentation of my work. I was immediately entranced by the lush landscape, being a spa-centric coastal town, and decided I would use the residency resources to mark a shift in my practice. Moving from mostly working with archival materials to create films, I decided I would make a live action film with all the scenes filmed in Varberg. Through the residency structure, we met archivists, historians, and locals. 

Upon leaving and returning to the residency home, I was both haunted by and greeted by the life size statue of Danuta Danielsson. I was fascinated by her story, and the story of the statue in her likeness, the rejection of an anti-fascist monument, and it’s landing on private property. But also, how the family rejected this frozen image of their loved one. 

In many ways, I was constantly trying to counter the absence of Black people in the regional archives. I wanted to make a film that brought together recent migrants of African diasporic heritage that had settled in the area. I wanted the film to be a document and a record of existence, that engaged with local landmarks and contemporary histories, while also exploring play and national symbolism.  

The work was very process-driven, and I was guided by folklore and rumor and storytelling, and people who journeyed with me to places and landscapes that were meaningful to them. As an outsider, I attempted to use the filmmaking process to sonically and visually transmit the psychogeography of place and think through our physical bodies as embodied archives indexing the past, present, and future.  

– Crystal Z Campbell

Crystal Z Campbell (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) is a transdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses performance, film, and video. Her practice often stems from suppressed “public secrets” and is characterized by a combination of archival material and fictional strategies. 

https://www.crystalzcampbell.com/

In the residency Self-Care Now and Then (2019, Varberg Municipality), three international artists drew upon Varberg’s history and present-day reality as a health resort. Through various encounters, archival discoveries, and the absence of certain narratives, they wove together — in video and performance works — profound reflections on the construction of history, friction, representation, and the nature of self-care.