"at last, you are not discrete" was a monthlong sonic installation and collectivized solo show at 700b gallery in Portland, Oregon in September of 2016.
The project intervenes on the reduction of DJing and social space to the function of smooth gratification by pushing sonic dissonance, discontinuity, and ambivalence between spells of pleasure. The work presents an analogue to the discordance of everyday life -- using sound, a sensation which cannot be blocked -- with the understanding that even my own body is not a "safe space"; I cannot readily define its thresholds, immunize its vulnerabilities, or precipitate its pleasures. I am not myself.
Thoughts and language enter and exit like radio waves. Speech from multiple voices and intervention from multiple artists used in combination with music and noise further break down the political concept of the self-possessed subject. Authorship is highly contingent, sound becomes a contagion, and comfort is out of the question.
Three DJ-set style tracks overlaying collages of progressive club music with speech from scholars on topics such as white queer gentrifiers and the expansion of the carceral state in the name of protecting LGBTQIA+ populations, Black feminist futures, and experimental structuralist poetry are juxtaposed with binaural tones. All of these are played on a loop throughout the open hours of the exhibition, with the exception of outside interventions.
Throughout the month, the installation space featured guest interventions from friends and colleagues in the Portland arts community. Artists were invited to make use of the PA system and exhibition space however they saw fit.
Visual of this exhibition is currently scarce. The exhibition consisted of two black P.A. monitors on stands and a full size club standard subwoofer installed in a white gallery room playing a playback loop off of a hidden computer.
Curated by Chloe Alexandra Thompson.
"at last, you are not discrete" exhibition programming:
Pre-opening party at Valentine's Bar, September 2, 2016 featuring performances and contributions from Mars Dietz, lu yim, sidony o'neal, and Carly Barton
Opening, 700b gallery, September 4, 2016
"Nocturne," a pop-up talk by Derrais Carter, September 6, 2016
"Queer Futurisms II: End Sinister/Bruise Plastic," a performance by Leif J. Lee and Tabitha Nikolai, September 17, 2016
Sample track
Track 04: "A Politics of Feeling Good," one of several tracks played on loop in the space, combines popular music with language around safety, gentrification, racism and anti-Blackness, and queerness in the United States context.
Track 04: "A Politics of Feeling Good," one of several tracks played on loop in the space, combines popular music with language around safety, gentrification, racism and anti-Blackness, and queerness in the United States context.
Sample Track
Track 02: "he must have a function..." another track played in the loop within the space.
Track 02: "he must have a function..." another track played in the loop within the space.