SOUND | FILM
Corpus meum | Arts Club of Chicago, 2018
Corpus Meum, site-specific sound installation and “Platforms Series: Architecture and Sound Panel” at the historic Arts Club of Chicago along with architect Leigh Breslau and musicologist Ryan Dohoney, curated by Jenna Lyle, The Arts Club of Chicago, 2018
Corpus Meum represents the first installation by D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem at The Arts Club of Chicago and exists as a one-night-only multi-site interactive sound installation activating the galleries and its intimate spaces in conjunction with the Architecture and Sound Panel. Conceived as a self-portrait in space and sound, each space corresponds to a part of the body with the entrance as the “head” and to a point in time within the artist’s aesthetic development including: a composition in the central gallery based on late AFRICOBRA co-founder Barbara Jones-Hogu’s iconic Unite (1969, on view at DePaul Museum of Art at the time of panel) comprised of the voices of artists, students and practitioners around Chicago; installation of Wan Chuku and the Mystical Yam Farm sculptures in the Mies Van der Rohe stairwell with a tale from the artist about camping in the Nigerian bush emanating from a Lorax-style funnel; a plaintive song of desire and longing inspired by Pipilotti Rist’s 1996 Sip My Ocean; and an enticing Black feminist homage/challenge to Vito Acconci’s 1972 Seedbed.
Unite! (after Barbara Jones Hogu) (belly)
Tiv Horns and Drums
Psst (1 of 3 installation audio components, after Vito Acconci) (breast)
Oh, Vito (2 of 3 installation audio components, after Vito Acconci) (breast)
Tell Me/Orgasm/Boss (3 of 3 components, after Vito Acconci) (breast)
Moon Water (1 of 2, bathroom installation) (head)
Up Under Different Stars (2 of 2, bathroom installation) (head)
Cry Me a River (1 of 2, bathroom installation) (head)
.SPORE | GOLDFINCH, CHICAGO FOR CATHY HSIAO MOVEMENT II, BLOOM, 2018
spore., sound performance based on sculptural score for invitational series activating Movement I, Bloom exhibition by Cathy Hsiao, Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago (March 2018)
My movement score notations with Cathy’s original sculpture score.
Breath- sound- movement-based live performance responding to each sculpture with Hsiao’s amplified wall sanding as I moved through the gallery.
.spore, performance of breath and sound in conversation with sculptures by Cathy Hsiao for Movement II, Bloom, Goldfinch, Chicago, 2018
LA FANTAISIE IBEJI
La Fantaisie Ibeji uses hypnotic imagery to represent the “twin spirit” in Yoruba cultural tradition and in representations of twins and twoness across West Africa from photography to marketplace to mosque.
The Yoruba aesthetic of twoness, or ejiwapo, as discussed by Dr. Babatunde Lawal, becomes inspiration for a dreamscape of the dual self with manipulated footage from three performances (Alter-Destiny 888, Wan Chuku and the Mystical Yam Farm, Super Space Riff).
The experimental video has been presented at:
–Petty Biennial II, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Nov. 2019-Feb. 2020
–Brother El’s Sandbox Symphony IV, Black electronic music festival, 39th Street Beach, Chicago, August 2019
–Speculations exhibition, curated by Joana Joachim, ARTEXTE, Montréal, Canada, May-July 2019, (installation above)
–Magnetic Electro Masquerade, An Evening of Afro Electronica Music and Afro-futurist Cosplay, hosted by David
Boykin and Ytasha Womack The Promontory, Halloween, 2017
–Magnetic Electro Masquerade: An Evening of Afro Electronica Music and Afro-futurist Cosplay, backdrop for guest
performances including Moor Mother of Black Quantum Futurism, Elastic Arts, Chicago, 2015
SUPER SPACE RIFF FEAT. DNA OPERA BY REV. KIMBERLY CRUTCHER | HYDE PARK ART CENTER, CHICAGO
Super Space Riff: An Ode to Mae Jemison & Octavia Butler, Performance-Installation with soundscape for Takeover, inaugural exhibition, curated by Alison Peters Quinn, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 2006. This piece was also installed and performed as OCTO II for Looptopia, Macy’s Windows with MCA, Chicago, 2007
Featured in::
-Originally commissioned as one of 40 artists responding to the new building for Hyde Park Art Center’s inaugural exhibition Takeover, 2006
-Invited for Looptopia performance-installation in historic Macy’s windows on State Street, Chicago
-Video performance at Hollywood Beach, Chicago
“Super Space Riff: An Ode to Mae Jemison and Octavia Butler in VIII Stanzas” (excerpt):
I.
Code: 229435000721
Intergalactic Transmission Translation
Date: 2006AD/50th year Mae Jemison
From: Afri-Sci-FiAnthromorph
Planet Address: /||+)||\ |. (or, A3)
You Are Here…
THE GOLDEN CHAIN | BLACK RADICAL IMAGINATION | SONG AND VOICE OF MAIN CHARACTER, SCIENTIST YETUNDE, FOR SHORT FILM BY ADEBUKOLA BODUNRIN AND EZRA CLAYTAN DANIELS
The Golden Chain, 2016, a film by Adebukola Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels. I voiced the main character Yetunde, the future scientist, and jazz vocal stylings in this remixed tale of the Yoruba origins of the universe. The Golden Chain has been featured in exhibitions and film screenings worldwide, including Black Radical Imagination curated by Erin Cristovale and Amir George, and is part of the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
SOUNDSCAPE (FOR DREXCIYA) | FE GALLERY, PITTSBURGH, 2011
RAPUNZEL REVISITED | PROJECTION SOUNDSCAPE | MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, CHICAGO, 2006
LA MORENA | SOUNDTRACK FROM PERFORMANCE-INSTALLATION, 2004
These Foolish Things (a cappella), 2004
HANDS | VIDEO FOR INSTALLATION, MUTATIS MUTANDIS, 2003
Stills from Mutatis Mutandis (those things which must be changed, having been changed), Dillard University Art Gallery, 2003, including Hands video, 2002
La Pistola y El Corazon (after Los Lobos), 2004
It Might As Well Be Spring (after Astrud Gilberto), 2004
Sister Moon, 2004