AFRO-SONIC MAPPING Tracing aural histories via sonic transmigrations

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I just had a visit with my friend Satch Hoyt and he showed me the website he’s been working on for the past few months. Satch is an artist and a musician and a friend of mine since when I first moved to Paris. He’s based in Berlin.

Satch Hoyt, born in London of British and African-Jamaican ancestry, is currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. He makes sculptures and installations accompanied with sound, as well as performances, paintings and drawings. There is a dichotomy in these genres that define two sides of the same coin: a dual and complementary reflection on the Transnational African Diaspora and its multi-fold consequences. The role that sonicity and music play within this context is Hoyt’s prime focus. His project Afro-Sonic Mapping: Tracing Aural Histories via Sonic Transmigrations and its various manifestations is what occupies Hoyt’s current practice. The sculptural trope in Hoyt’s work addresses the facts on the ground, so to speak, of black experience, while his Afro-Sonic Map paintings depict middle passage cartography that taps into a spirit of fantasy, refuge and transcendence – as vehicles for an imaginative journey beyond the obduracy and oppressiveness of history. These works are also graphic scores, which can be performed by music ensembles.

With regard to his musical accomplishments, Satch Hoyt has composed a number of songs with Grace Jones; noteworthy is 7-Day Weekend, which is on the triple platinum soundtrack album of the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang (1992). Hoyt is currently working on two albums: Galaxy X and Cleopatra’s Chariot with Earl Harvin. Recent performances include Sonic Shadow with Earl Harvin and Dirk Leyers, and his Hair Combing Cycle performance.

Selected exhibitions and projects include Respect Hip Hop Style and Wisdom, Oakland Museum of California (2018); Dak’art, Biennale de Dakar (2018); The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Perez Art Museum (2018); Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp(2017); The Beautiful Game, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2014); Rehearsals: The Practice and Influence of Sound and Movement, SCAD Museum of Art (2013); Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Grey Art Gallery, New York University (2013); Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, Kazerne Dossin (2012); Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2012); The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, ICA Boston (2011); Art is a Combat Sport, Museum of Fine Art Calais (2011); The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design(2010). In 2013, Hoyt was artist-in-residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, USA.

Hoyt has participated in the San Juan Triennial (2009); the Beijing Biennial (2008); Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum (2007), Equatorial Rhythms, The Stenersen Museum, Norway (2007); Black Light White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2007); Liverpool Biennial (2004); Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum (2004); Brown v. Board of Education, Gallery 138 (2004); Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art (2003) traveling to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2004), and the Barbican Centre (2004); The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, Walker Art Center (2003); Body Power/Power Play, Wüttembergischer Kunstverein (2002) and SportCult, apexart (2001).

http://www.satchhoyt.art

https://afrosonicmapping.com/

instagram:

Later,

Diane

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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