Opening Reception featuring Sonic Insurgency Research Group, Leila Weefur and the 181 Collective at Locust Projects
On Friday, February 18, Locust Projects celebrated the opening of three new commissioned projects featuring Sonic Insurgency Research Group (SIRG), Leila Weefur, and the 181 Collective. Attendees had the opportunity to meet Chicago-based artists, Josh Rios and Matt Joynt, and Boston-based artist Anthony Romero of SIRG; San Francisco-based artist, writer, and curator Leila Weefur, and the 181 Collective, including members: Brandon Boan (Old Fort, NC), Abby Donovan and Tom Hughes (Eugene, OR and Newark, DE), and Jason Rhodes (Bend, OR).
If the Source is Open (Megamix) is a new immersive sound installation by artist collective Sonic Insurgency Research Group (SIRG). The exhibition continues the collective’s explorations of the role sound and noise play in the structuring of life, particularly as ideas about sound and noise are leveraged in the struggle over cultural consensus, social power, and public space.This site-based work reflects on sound norms and noise regulations as a form of politics, the acoustics of gentrification, as well as the role sound and celebration play in the forming of communities of practice and opposition. If the Source is Open (Megamix) materializes ongoing research into a long-form four-channel sound collage broadcast from a directional speaker system situated on a sculptural listening platform. Miami-focused sounds and sites are featured throughout, including site recordings, experimental compositions, lectures, fragments of conversations, DJ mixes, archival audio, and more. The work is accompanied by a series of programs and activations utilizing the platform and the exhibition duration as a site for live performances and dialogues centering Miami-based participants and contributors. Learn more here.
PLAY†PREY is a gospel by artist Leila Weefur, presented as a multi-channel film experience, that recounts a relationship between God, the Church, and a queer Black child. The four-part film, and its accompanying architectural display, explore the playful impulses, innocence, and underlying violence implicated in the experience of queer Black children in the Christian Church. Beginning with an overture to the story of queer Biblical reclamation, this film builds a spiritual narrative that contemplates the structures, literally and metaphorically, and the rules imposed on pleasure, play, and sexuality under the rigidity of Black Christianity. Learn more here.
Artist collective the 181 (Brandon Boan, Abby Donovan, Tom Hughes, Jason Rhodes) will activate a series of circumstantial compositions considering time-based obstruction, including: the ancient Mud Lake Canal, Reserve-Capacity wave maneuvers, attempts to spot the endangered snail kite, shadow-telling trails from Mabel Cody, and other anomalous successions. Joined by artists Cose Cosmiche (Milan, IT), Emile Milgrim (Miami, FL), Rat Bastard (Miami, FL) and various passers-by, they take as their starting point the translation of something Franz Liszt is said to have written about a house concert by Frédéric Chopin: “…all idea of limit was lost, so that there seemed no boundary save the darkness of space.” Learn more here
Poet-in-residence Arsimmer McCoy’s large photo mural visible along the windows on North Miami Avenue is presented as part of an initiative to invite local artists and organizations to activate Locust Projects’ Mobile Storefront Studio. The image is a still from a film by McCoy created in collaboration with filmmaker Terence Price II and an excerpt from a poem written by McCoy and artist Reginald O'Neal. Learn more here.
Bookleggers Library is in our Mobile Studio with a curated selection of books related to the exhibitions! Bookleggers Library is a nonprofit mobile library that expands access to free books as a way of building community. Come through, grab a book, enjoy a free cup of coffee, and sit a spell!
Big thanks to our Official Exhibitions Beer Sponsor Tripping Animals Brewing and cocktail sponsors Drifter Spirits!
The shows are on view through April 9, 2022, Wed-Sat | 11am-5pm in the Miami Design District.
Locust Projects 2021-2022 exhibitions and programming are made possible with support from: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children's Trust; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant; Susan and Richard Arregui; Hillsdale Fund; the Albert and Jane Nahmad Family Foundation; VIA Art Fund | Wagner Foundation Incubator Grant; Diane and Robert Moss; Elizabeth Bailey; Cowles Charitable Trust; Diane and Werner Grob; Kirk Foundation; Diane and Alan Lieberman; Artis; and the Incubator Fund Supporting Sponsors and Friends.