Join the ICA and 1708 Gallery for . . . and Drive (Far Away), a mixed media sound installation and durational performance by Set It Off artist Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste which centers on a cross-country drive in a decommissioned police car. Utilizing custom car tint and audio elements, Toussaint-Baptiste’s performance explores Ford Police Interceptors and Crown Victorias both as sociocultural and audiovisual markers key to the sonic ecologies of the Gulf South, as well as tools of potential self-abstraction, fraught with risk, drawing attention to the oft-dangerous labor required of migration.
Throughout his week-long solo drive from Tucson, AZ to Richmond, VA, Toussaint-Baptiste will perform activations in key cities along I-10 and I-95, highways that are themselves arteries of Gulf South sonority. Here, the car becomes a sort-of instrument as the intense sound of the bass is obscured and abstracted while its doors and windows open and close, much like the keys of a saxophone being depressed or raised. In each case, the restriction or release of air from the vessel shapes the sound and allows for the perception of “music.”
The culminating performance will take place at 401 West Broad Street (between the ICA and 1708 Gallery) in Richmond, VA on Friday, June 10.
This performance is co-presented by Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, 1708 Gallery, and Martos Gallery, New York.