Nightsong by Derek Fordjour
In the art exhibition Nightsong by Ghanaian-American artist Derek Fordjour showing at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles [September 13 - October 11], black music is spotlighted in an immersive experience featuring paintings, sculptures, live performances and video.
This four-hour long exhibit runs at night time to stay on theme with the title. Fordjour has described Nightsong as “giant music box in the dark,” an “acoustic wilderness,” and “a conjuring”.
As you walk into the gallery [Mississipi Goddam by Nina Simone was playing as I was ushered in], you're invited almost seductively into a space surrounded by prolific black music in all its forms and as you step into the different rooms housing this exhibit, which you're encouraged to experience in a cycle [without returning to the last room], you're enveloped in imagery, objects, and figures of black musicians and consistently through the night, live singers perform exact replicas of classic black songs such as O Day by Bessie Jones & Alan Lomax and We Shall Overcome [Arr. R. Gibson for choir].
I've never experienced anything like it.
The textures created in the paintings with the use of Fordjour’s unique collaging techniques is mirrored in the almost tactile nature of the music surrounding. Everywhere you looked, there were black people of all ages and styles, and this made the artworks come alive because the audience became art pieces in themselves as they sang along to the tracks heard throughout the gallery.
[Living In The City by Stevie Wonder]
It felt like a spiritual experience and the video installation coupled with the coordinating music told of the different ways black people have used music to find a voice for themselves.
Imagery of protests against police and black joy, and church services and HBCU marching bands, all collide in this sonic and visual experience as the music tells the stories.
This is about black rebellion, black expression and black survival through music.
At a point, it felt like I was in church, a church of black music, and this made me think of the black experience with religion [specifically Christianity] and how I believe it’s rooted in a form of escapism. The ways music and religion intertwine are so interesting because the emotive music and environment might be the main reason most people go to church.
One of my favorite experiences from this exhibit is a mix of police sirens blaring, afro-latin flavored instrumentation mixed and Alright by Kendrick as we view protest imagery on the video installation.
I noted the first moment of silence we get through out the whole exhibition is called forward by a gun shot seen on the video installations and heard throughout the space. That is very symbolic to me because once your voice is compromised or quieted, you are as good as dead.
Nightsong was a truly unique experience, I wish I could have stayed longer to experience the live performances in their fullness. Music will continue to go on and will continue to live through its creators and listeners.