In September and October, Triple Canopy will copresent a series of performances at KinoSaito Art Center in Verplanck, New York, as part of the exhibition “Signaling.” The exhibition includes work by a number of artists who have contributed to Triple Canopy (or will soon do so)—Vivian Caccuri, Raven Chacon, Nikita Gale, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste—and is curated by Alexander Provan, the magazine’s editor.
On October 22, Chacon, an artist, composer, and musician from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, will premiere American Ledger No. 3 (2020), a score devoted to the journalist and anti-lynching campaigner Ida B. Wells, performed by an ensemble of vocalists. Chacon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022, often creates compositions in the form of graphic scores, trading traditional notation for visual symbols to be interpreted by performers, whether individually or collectively. In addition to having his scores performed, Chacon presents them as artworks, calling on viewers to consider how they are conditioned to speak and listen, how they might find a sense of common understanding (or a common voice) beyond the standards of communication. American Ledger No. 3 manifests as a flag with the score, which makes use of symbols of political union that have commonly been employed by American states even as they have denied the rights, suppressed the speech, and devalued the lives of people of color; the flag is accompanied by a newsprint publication that includes additional instructions for performers and connects Wells’s writing to contemporary police violence. (The flag and publication are on view in “Signaling.”)
Following the performance of Chacon’s work, the musician L’Rain, who will be an artist in residence as part of “Signaling,” will perform in a duo with her bandmate Ben Chapoteau-Katz. Eschewing the conventions that link genres to identities and expressions to experiences, L’Rain’s music ranges from propulsive, gospel-tinged pop to dense, sample-laden abstraction; from intimate, unadorned ballads to clattering, free-jazz-influenced improvisations. L’Rain recently released Fatigue (2021), which the New York Times described as “truly amazing” and Pitchfork called “a graceful record whose wearied landscapes of synth, air horn, strings, and saxophone distill a suite of low moods—depression, regret, and fear—into resilience and hope.”
At various points in the day, Toussaint-Baptiste and collaborators will perform with … and Drive Far Away (2022), a mobile sculpture in the form of an unmarked police car that the artist has customized and outfitted with ultra-low-frequency subwoofers. Toussaint-Baptiste has appropriated the notorious Ford Crown Vic—a sign of surveillance, and of the intimidation of communities of color through such signs—to amplify rather than police the frequencies of Gulf Coast rap, which he grew up hearing. Toussaint-Baptiste’s sculpture also acts as a platform for collaborations with artists who are engaged with musical subcultures characterized by bass (and with the perception of those who define themselves through such subcultures); on this occasion, he’ll be joined by Centennial Gardens, a duo formed by the musicians Dreamcrusher and King Vision Ultra. After the performances, Toussaint-Baptiste will speak about the history and symbolism of the car, as well as his relationship to bass and car-audio culture.
To read more about Toussaint-Baptiste’s work, visit the page for the performances at the opening of “Signaling” on September 10, which includes a concert by the musician Dawuna.
KinoSaito is a five-minute drive from the Peekskill Metro-North station, which is one hour from Grand Central Terminal; shuttles between the Peekskill station and KinoSaito will be available during the events on September 10 and October 22. Beverages for this event are graciously provided by Grimm Ales and Hiatus Tequila.
This public program is made possible through generous support from Jane Hait, a founding member of Triple Canopy Director’s Circle, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
- Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, and artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2022 Biennial (New York City), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Renaissance Society (Chicago), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Vancouver Art Gallery, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), SITE Santa Fe, Ende Tymes Festival, and the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.). As a member of the group Postcommodity from 2009 to 2018, he co-created artworks that were presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Carnegie International 57, and, in the case of the two-mile-long installation Repellent Fence (2015), on the border of the United States and Mexico. Since 2004, he has mentored over three hundred Native high school composers in the writing of new string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). Chacon won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 and is the recipient of awards and fellowships from United States Artists, Creative Capital, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the American Academy Berlin, the Bemis Center, and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
- L’Rain is the moniker of the Brooklyn-based musician Taja Cheek. She released her debut, self-titled album in 2017, and Fatigue (Mexican Summer) in 2021. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, the New Yorker, New York Magazine, Pitchfork, Artforum, Fader, and the Wire, among other publications. In recent years, she has played festivals around the world and toured with artists such as Animal Collective and Sharon Van Etten.
- Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste is a New York-based artist, composer, and performer. His work considers errant relations that thrive across subjectivities. He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond), Human Resources (Los Angeles), and Berlin Atonal (Berlin). He is represented by Martos Gallery (New York City). He has presented visual and performance work at MoMA PS1 (New York City); Performance Space New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Kitchen (New York City); Issue Project Room (New York City); the Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Toussaint-Baptiste is a founding member of the performance collective Wildcat!. He has been an artist in residence at Issue Project Room, the Bemis Center, the Jerome Foundation Airspace Residency at Abrons Arts Center, and the Rauschenberg Foundation, and has been named a Camargo Foundation Core Program Fellow and received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Music Composition and Sound Design.
- Centennial Gardens is the duo of the New York City-based musicians Dreamcrusher and King Vision Ultra. The group’s debut, SPLIT (PTP), was released in 2021. Dreamcrusher is a moniker of the musician and artist Luwayne Glass, who began the project in 2003 while living in Kansas as a means of self-discovery and release—and of addressing the experience of being queer and Black through various forms and personas, none of them static or stable. King Vision Ultra is an alias of the musician and artist GENG PTP, founder of the collective Purple Tape Pedigree, which releases music and publications as well as organizing community gatherings and actions. Since 2017, King Vision Ultra has produced music that deals with the relationship between memory, archives, self-actualization, and trauma.
- KinoSaito is an art center in Verplanck, New York, that is rooted in the creation and practice of abstract art and committed to nurturing experimentation in every form and medium. By engaging artist and audience, painting and performance, learning and play, KinoSaito honors the spirit of its founding muse, Kikuo Saito, and furthers his vision for an interdisciplinary art of making and moving, free of borders and definitions.