Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
Toussaint-Baptiste, an artist as well as a performer and composer, is interested in how people represent themselves and relate to others through sound and music. He considers how some audiences are conditioned to appreciate and recognize themselves in particular sounds, such as the low-frequency bass that characterizes Gulf Coast rap, while others are trained to find the same frequencies repulsive or alienating. Toussaint-Baptiste employs subwoofers that emit tones so low that they are felt rather than heard, emphasizing the physical nature of sound and of the relationships formed through music. Growing up in the Gulf South, Toussaint-Baptiste was fascinated by the culture of customizing vehicles with tinted windows and deafening subwoofers, and his work often asks how people use such cars to simultaneously announce and conceal themselves.
Before installing … and Drive (Far Away) at KinoSaito, Toussaint-Baptiste drove the car from Tucson, Arizona, to Richmond, Virginia, along I-10 and I-95, recording the trip—and the sounds emitted by the speakers—with a dash cam.
GARDEN
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste featuring Dreamcrusher
10 Sep. 2022 | 5pm
For the opening of Signaling, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste performed a composition for an unmarked police car that he has turned into a sound system and instrument: … and Drive Far Away (2022), his contribution to the signaling exhibition. (The work was installed in KinoSaito’s garden throughout the exhibition.) After the performance, Toussaint-Baptiste spoke about the work and his relationship to bass, Gulf Coast rap, car-audio culture, and policing.
Dreamcrusher is a moniker of the New York City-based musician and artist, Luwayne Glass.
This event was co-presented by the magazine Triple Canopy, which is edited by Alexander Provan, the curator of Signaling. Thank you to our sponsors: Grimm Ales and HIATUS Tequila.
GARDEN
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste featuring Centennial Gardens
22 Oct. 2022 | 5pm
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste performed a composition for an unmarked police car that he has turned into a sound system and instrument: … and Drive Far Away (2022), his contribution to the exhibition. (The work was installed in KinoSaito’s garden throughout the exhibition.) After the performance, Toussaint-Baptiste spoke about the work and his relationship to bass, Gulf Coast rap, car-audio culture, and policing.
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. Glass began Dreamcrusher 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.
This event was co-presented by the magazine Triple Canopy, which is edited by Alexander Provan, the curator of Signaling. Thank you to our sponsors: HIATUS Tequila and Captain Lawrence Brewery.