Mendi + Keith Obadike “Numbers Station [Furtive Movements]”

RYAN LEE

This event has ended.

RYAN LEE announces the debut of Numbers Station [Furtive Movements], a performance and installation of sound and objects by Mendi + Keith Obadike that employs the radical misuse of the data that reduces Black bodies to numbers.

Numbers Station [Furtive Movements] is the first in a new series of works originally conceived
in 2010 that utilizes the structure of numbers stations- mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts
used to transmit clandestine information by a single voice reading a series of cryptic numbers, punctuated by electronic sounds and music. Blurring the lines between music and information and between public and private communication, the Numbers Station series addresses the cerebral appeal made by data (a tally of bodies in official records) against the visceral reality of violence. Other Numbers Station projects engage with lynching statistics assembled by Ida B. Wells and numbers from slave ship manifests.

The exhibition is preceded by a 30-minute performance conducted at the gallery on the eve
of the opening. Using a radio transmitter and tone generators, the artists will read a series of numbers culled from the self-reported Stop-and-Frisk data of 123 New York Police Department
precincts. The numbers exist as the material, the subject, and the score of the work: the artists’ voices and fragmented music tones are processed, broadcast, and played back in real-time during the performance and later as a recording for the duration of the exhibition.

Media

Schedule

from September 10, 2015 to October 10, 2015
Performance: Wednesday, September 9, 5-6PM

Opening Reception on 2015-09-10 from 18:00 to 20:00

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