Art and Installation
(re)Sounding (2020): The clap of the watchman’s rattle, the twang of the banjo, and the thump of a bass drum are resonances that, like the objects which make them, are tethered to history. Sounding and listening are practices bound up in legacies of people, place, and power. These objects call forth histories of war, empire, colonialism, nationalism, spirituality, technological innovation, race and gender inequality. More broadly, they insist on the importance of music and collective soundmaking as essential practices in the creation of identity, community, and history. They emerge out of a shared past that is unstable, contested, noisey, and filled with silences. (re)Sounding explores the ways in which these instruments can summon that shared past into this room, into (this) time.
Exhibition in collaboration with Seven Count, Angus McCullough and Adam Tinkle, The Bennington Museum, February-May 2020. Gallery guide and essay here.
The 7C Real Deck (2019): The Real Deck was born out of my band Seven Count’s attempt to name the sources, cosmologies, and strategies of improvised music and creativity. The deck distills our creative process into a framework that can be shared, expanded, remixed and played with. In our own work we have used the deck to answer questions about our futures, stimulate creative production, form the basis for musical scores, and keep our senses attuned to the real. Made in collaboration with Angus McCullough and Adam Tinkle.
Available for purchase here.
Radyo Vagabondo (2019): A pop-up pirate radio station built in June 2019 for the Manifesta Biennale in Palermo Sicily; documenting verbal descriptions of vernacular Sicilain hand gestures; honoring the legacy of anti-mafia radio activist Peppino Impastato; providing music and entertainment to the locals of Piazza Magione; broadcasting in English, French, and Italian on 97.6 FM. In collaboration with Richard Fleming.
Tanbou Maps (2017): Experimental research into the cosmology of vodou drumming in Haiti. Painting made in collaboration with Syndia Leonce of the Gran Rue, Port-Au-Prince. Performance by Patrick Derival and Kesner Deriveres. Artist statement co-written with Syndia Leonce: The dotted lines trace the path of rhythms from Africa, France, Spain, and indigenous people, to the lake here in Port-Au-Prince. We think the drum is a beautiful symbol of the lake, resonating throughout the universe. We chose the heart as a central motif, because everyone is born with a drum inside of themselves. Produced for the 5th Ghetto Biennale.
Radyo Shak (2015): A pop-up pirate radio station in Port-Au-Prince Haiti, built in December 2015 for the 4th Ghetto Biennale. An ongoing documentation of Haitian arts locally and abroad; a physical artwork; a live platform for local artists and musicians to come together with the international arts comunity; broadcasting in Haitian Kreyol, French, and English over FM airwaves and the internet; a skills center providing technical and editorial training to the local community; a living documentation of the Grand Rue neighborhood of Port-Au-Prince. Live music, interviews, DJ sets, recipes, Haitian revolutionary history, archival audio, performance and sound art, vodou ceremonies, lectures, and more.
Click here for the complete Radyo Shak archive (100+ programs) from the 2015 Ghetto Biennale.
In collaboration with Richard Fleming
Shak design: Joe Winter and Jocelyn Georges
Hosted on Clocktower Radio.