View a recording of this program here. Courtesy of Mycroft Zimmerman and Galerie Lelong & Co.
For the first public program in conjunction with our 2022 Summer Exhibition, You’d Think By Now, Smack Mellon is thrilled to host a conversation between exhibiting artist Tariku Shiferaw and physicist Dr. Stephon Alexander, moderated by the exhibition’s curator, Rachel Vera Steinberg.
In this talk Shiferaw will discuss his installation, A Strange Place to Cast Our Dreams, which combines painting, sound, and sculpture, fusing abstraction that re-engages ancient African diasporic knowledge with sound and image making practices from history through the present. Through this installation, Shiferaw proposes a new mythology to imagine how the night sky would exist if diasporic cultural contributions were considered in the global consciousness. Alexander revisits the interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and the laws of motion. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. Finally, he discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from “improvisational logic” exemplified in Jazz performance and practice.
Image: Tariku Shiferaw, A Strange Place to Cast Our Dreams (detail), 2022. Acrylic paint, canvas, chain link fence, ceramic, sound, dimensions variable. Courtesy Tariku Shiferaw and Galerie Lelong & Co., New York
Bios:
Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander has straddled the worlds of theoretical physics and jazz music over the last two decades. He works on the connection between the smallest and largest entities in the universe pushing Einstein’s theory of curved space-time to extremes, beyond the big bang with subatomic phenomena.
Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University, with previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of inflation based on higher dimensional hypersurfaces in string theory called D-Branes. In such models the early universe emerged from the destruction of a higher dimensional D-brane which ignites a period of rapid expansion of space often referred to as cosmic inflation.
Tariku Shiferaw is a New York based artist who explores mark-making through painting, addressing issues around space-making within societal structures. Group exhibitions include Men of Change, a four-year nationally traveling exhibition with the Smithsonian Institution (2019-2023); Unbound, at the Zuckerman Museum of Art (2020-2021); The 2017 Whitney Biennial, as part of Occupy Museums (2017); A Poet*hical Wager, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2017); and What’s Love Got to Do With It?, at The Drawing Center (2019). Solo exhibitions include It’s a love thang, it’s a joy thang, at Galerie Lelong, NY (2021), This Ain’t Safe, at Cathouse Proper, Brooklyn (2018); and Erase Me, at Addis Fine Art, London (2017).
Shiferaw participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (2018 -2019) and Open Sessions at The Drawing Center (2018 – 2020). He is currently an artist-in-residence at Silver Art Projects (2020 – 2022).
In an effort to maintain a safe space for all visitors, artists, and staff, Smack Mellon encourages masks to be worn in its public spaces. For more information, please read our COVID Courtesy Code prior to your visit.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, many individuals, Smack Mellon’s Members, with in-kind support from Greenpoint Frames.
Smack Mellon’s programs are also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and with generous support from The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust, Jerome Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., and Exploring The Arts. In-kind donations are provided by Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Department of Education.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
Smack Mellon would like to extend a special thanks to all of the individuals, foundations, and businesses who have contributed to the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.