Steffani Jemison and Justin Hicks: Another time, this time, one time,

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Steffani Jemison and Justin Hicks, "Mikrokosmos (still)," 2017

Image courtesy of the artists.

Opening: September 21 @ 7pmSpecial Events:A related music performance by Jemison and Hicks will be presented twice on the opening weekend:Friday, September 22 @ 7pmSaturday, September 23 @ 2pm

Western Front is pleased to present Another time, this time, one time, an exhibition by Steffani Jemison and Justin Hicks. This exhibition features a series of newly commissioned works made under the umbrella of Jemison and Hicks’ Mikrokosmos—an ongoing collaborative project that considers listening, language, and pedagogy through contemporary Black American music. Using the solfége system of musical learning (do re mi...) as a model, the artists work to dissect specific songs into the melismatic gestures that they are comprised of. For this exhibition, the song at the centre of the work is Gil Scott-Heron’s 1977 “We Almost Lost Detroit."

Jemison and Hicks' process looks to Black musical study as both the subject and form of the work. Through their work with this song, the artists trace back a lineage that connects R&B music to a broader cultural field, such as relationships between Black poets and music, and the way that R&B, a musical form specific to Black America, redefines how people understand the language of the song.

This iteration of Mikrokosmos is produced by Western Front with additional support from Nottingham Contemporary for a related exhibition and performance in 2018.

Artist Biographies:

Steffani Jemison was born in Berkeley, California, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University (2003). She has served as a visiting artist at many institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hampshire College, the Evergreen State College, and Georgia State University. She has taught fine art at Columbia University, Parsons The New School for Design, Wellesley College, Trinity College, Rice University, the Cooper Union, and other institutions. She is the 2016-2017 Arthur J. Levitt '52 Artist-in-Residence at Williams College.

Jemison uses time-based, photographic, and discursive platforms to examine "progress" and its alternatives. Jemison's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Drawing Center, LAXART, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Bridget Donahue, Laurel Gitlen,Team Gallery, and others. Her work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Kadist Foundation.

Justin Hicks is a composer, sound designer, and performer. His work has been presented at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, PS122, The Juilliard School,The Knitting Factory, Jack, Arlene’s Grocery, Pianos and Bowery Poetry Club. He was a member of Kara Walker’s 6-8 Months Space and served as performer and sound designer for Go/Forth (Please, Bury Me) by Kaneza Schaal. Go/Forth premiered at PS122’s Coil Festival in 2016 and will be presented as part of the River to River Festival in June 2016. Hicks was a performer and sound designer for The Geneva Project by Jennifer Harrison Newman and Charlotte Brathwaite and the Obie Award-winning production of Prophetika: An Oratorio by Charlotte Brathwaite. His work The Odetta Project: Waterboy and the Mighty World, was shown at Bowery Arts and Science in 2014 and was featured during the Freedom Songs Festival: Which Side Are You On, Friend? at Jack in 2015. Most recently, he served as musical director for Steffani Jemison’s Promise Machine (MoMA 2015). His album Scratches from Mercy is available via Bandcamp.