FUTURIST LISTENING
Curated by Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
CUE Art Foundation is pleased to present Futurist Listening, Steve Parker’s first solo exhibition in New York City, curated by Marcela Guerrero. This series of work takes the form of sonic headwear, acoustic sculptures built from brass instruments, and graphic scores, all of which build upon World War II audio tactics such as jamming signals, coded messages, and warning sirens, reimagining them in sculptural form as vehicles for present-day protest and deception.
These systems are mapped out across the gallery with trumpet pipes welded into sprawling abstract lines, diagrammed and layered on paper scores, or compiled into looming brass speakers and noise intoners. In the piece ASMR Étude, Parker recreates wearable acoustic locators through which one can hear popular Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR, recordings made to treat anxiety, PTSD, and insomnia. Another piece, titled Ghost Box, requires visitors to activate the sculpture through touch, initiating different looped audio clips of coded songs from the Underground Railroad, coded transmissions like Morse Code, and jamming signals of Soviet Russia and Communist China. Together, these constructions chart a multitude of possible choreographies for each listener to embody their sonic components, implicating the listener’s body as a site for receiving and issuing calls to action. Engaging auditory tools associated with early twentieth century political conflict and war, Parker invites us to listen closely to the ways that sound can be used to incite resistance, disrupt systems of control, and ease anxiety and illness.
Catalogue | Essay: “Steve Parker: Call and Respond” by Lilia Ricio Taboada
Press: Design Milk | Colossal
This project was made possible by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.