Jay Afrisando: is sound is tactile is visual is sound is

Exhibition run: Saturday, October 14 — Saturday, November 11, 2024

Exhibition opening: Saturday, October 14, 5:00-8:30pm CST

Exhibition closing and participatory workshop: Saturday, November 11, 3:00-4:30pm CST

Curb Appeal Gallery is pleased to announce our third exhibition Jay Afrisando: is sound is tactile is visual is sound is. This exhibition marks the Chicago debut of two recent works by Afrisando: In Which to Trust? (2022) and Embodied Music Club (2023), both of which invite audiences to rethink their understanding of and relationship to sound. Using open captioning as a creative accommodation, the 5-channel film installation In Which to Trust? presents five aurally diverse listeners’ differing experiences of audio. Embodied Music Club comprises a series of raised, tactile graphic scores and recorded audio interpretations of those scores created by four visually diverse people. Creative accommodations accompany the scores, including sound captioning in both visual and Braille formats. At the exhibition closing on Saturday, November 11, Afrisando will host a workshop at Curb Appeal inviting visitors to the gallery to interpret and record their own sound scores as part of the growing archive generated by Embodied Music Club.

Jay Afrisando is an Indonesian composer, multimedia artist, researcher, and educator. He works on aural diversity, acoustic ecology, and cultural identity, focusing on disability and environmental justice, arts and accessibility, and decolonizing arts practices. He shares vital experiences and disseminates knowledge through multisensory and antidisciplinary practices, including video, text, spatial audio, fixed media, improvisation, and various collaborative methods. His works have been presented at DC Sound Scene at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Seattle Art Museum, the Walker Art Center’s Virtual Cinema, and ARGOS Projector: The Faraway Nearby, among others.

About the gallery: Curb Appeal is an apartment gallery located in the Heart of Chicago, run by Todd Garon and Sandy Guttman. As an organization, we are interested in the intersection of art and accessibility. We draw inspiration from the neighborhood topology of our historic storefront space and its visibility to the community in which we are sited. Our large windows and sidewalk stoop encourage passersby to peer in as well as invite themselves into our live/workspace. Grounded in the idea of “home” with an ethic of accessibility, Curb Appeal reimagines what both an apartment and a gallery can be.

For more information, please contact info@curbappeal.gallery.

Accessibility: Curb Appeal is wheelchair accessible. As part of the exhibition, the videos comprising In Which to Trust? are captioned and audio described using creative accommodation methods. Embodied Music Club includes sound captions in visual and Braille formats describing the various audio interpretations of the tactile scores. Masks are required for entry and will be provided if needed. Please note, Curb Appeal is an apartment gallery and doubles as a home to our gallery dog.

Image description: A still from the video work In Which to Trust?. Five screens play the same video, shot in black and white. Two hands squeeze the end of an inflated balloon releasing air into a room. On the bottom portion of each screen are open captions in white text with a black background. Each of the five captions is different, depending on the listener’s interpretation of the sound.

Press release available here: Jay Afrisando Press Release