ArtLab hosts an Open Studio to premiere the sound sculpture SUPA_System by Loeb/ArtLab Fellow Joseph Zeal-Henry and Deborah Garcia, as well as work in development by artist-in-residence Sa’dia Rehman.
Sa’dia Rehman’s recent work traces their family’s late-1960s displacement from South-Central Asia’s Indus River due to the building of a hydroelectric dam. During an inspiring 2022 journey along the Indus with their family, Rehman witnessed a variety of vessels while passing by the tent cities set up on the riverside. As Rehman and their family traveled by boat, they saw signs of life and death. Most strange and inspiring was a mosque on wheels. Moving along the horizon, the mosque seemed like an artifact—from the future. In their studio at ArtLab, Rehman explores materials such as chalk, gauze, rust, and plaster. They experiment with the techniques of mold making, laser cutting, and 3D printing to replicate different structures and scales of what a mobile mosque could be.
SUPA_System is a sonic sculpture by Joseph Zeal-Henry (2024, Loeb/ArtLab Fellow) with designer Deborah Garcia. As spatial practitioners and designers, they explore music and sound as materials for constructing physical spaces. SUPA_System is a testament to the transformative potential of sonic social culture. Built at an outsized architectural scale, SUPA_System asks what music and sound can tell us about how we occupy spaces of power. This sound system, scaled to the human body, aims to inspire new ways of thinking about communal gathering spaces. Adorned in indigo, the color of a plant massively extracted from India and West Africa during the slave trade — but associated with protection and health in pre-colonial times — the piece also reclaims a piece of African material culture.
After this launch, ArtLab will host small, themed listening sessions around SUPA_System. Sound facilitators include James McNally, Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellow at the Hutchins Center, and Tania Bruguera, an artist and Harvard faculty member in Theater, Dance, and Media. This public artwork, curated by Bree Edwards for ArtLab and commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), was made possible with the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University. The Loeb Fellowship and the Graduate School of Design provided additional support.
ArtsThursdays Allston is an evening of art, music, and food in the Barry’s Corner neighborhood of Allston. Harvard Ceramics, Harvard Ed Portal, ArtLab, and Zone 3 will each feature free public events starting at 5 pm. See Eventbrite for more details and the full schedule of events.
This event is part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative for free, public art events every Thursday evening. It is supported by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA).
