exhibition statement
Imagine walking inside the thunderous sound of a taiko drum or feeling enveloped by the sinuous sounds of a saxophone, cello, or bass. What if your body became part of a visual landscape of colors, textures, and movements that resonated with the bone-tingling sound vibrating in your ears?
Tangible Sound: Arrival to a Higher Ground creates a sensory and celebratory experience of jazz art forms that connect, uplift, and transform our human spirit by translating the power of music into color and movement.
Together, photographer Lauren Deutsch, filmmaker Jonathan Woods, and the Tangible Sound Collaborative created an immersive exhibition celebrating Chicago’s creative improvised music community. The exhibition is inspired by the early experimenters whose boundary-breaking practices have influenced generations of visual and sonic artists.
This exhibition is dedicated to Ancestors Timuel D. Black, whose immense impact on the spirit, art and activism in Chicago continues to propel us forward, and the legendary musician, mentor and community-builder Fred Anderson.
ARTIST statementS
Improvisation is not about making things up as you go along. It is about making informed choices in the context of multiple perspectives that bring multiple possibilities. This struck me profoundly when I began working with Jonathan Woods to design motion into my photographs for the first iteration of Tangible Sound. It is hard to describe how thrilling it was for me to watch my work transform in ways that I had never imagined, and how the interchange of ideas stimulated rapid growth for me. With the addition of four new creative collaborators the experience has become much like the creative improvisational music that deeply inspires me. My beginnings in photography intersected with my introduction to creative improvised music in the late 1970s. The collective creativity I encountered over the decades I spent organizing, curating and presenting musicians performing in Chicago and internationally informs the ways in which I continue to photograph them.
As a filmmaker and musician, bringing life to Tangible Sound was an act of visual listening. Lauren’s photographs speak to the movement and kinetic nature of the music, as well as the heart and spirit of the artists. I let each photograph tell me how it wanted to move. Some required subtle flowing motion; others demanded percussive staccato energy or transformation into angelic forms that define three-dimensional space.It’s an honor to have the opportunity to expand the vision of Tangible Sound into three physical spaces at the Cultural Center. Our hope is to bring an additional experiential component to the original project, which Lauren and I created a few years ago. Honoring the Velvet Lounge and creating the Ancestral Forest experiences with our visionary team has been a work of joy which I hope stirs curiosity and inspiration in everyone who encounters the exhibit for years to come.
Tangible Sound Collaborative
Lauren Deutsch Co-Artistic Director, Photography
Jonathan Woods Co-Artistic Director, Motion & Sound Design
Kristen Youngman Immersive Artist & Director
Mitch Stomner Immersive Artist
George Berlin Technical Director
Jesse Cryderman Exhibition Production, Lighting Design & Media Director
Josue Esau Scenic Director and Fabrication
Barbara Ciurej Graphic Design
This project is supported by a Creative Project Grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, Mike Reed at Constellation Chicago and InsideStraight Productions
