HUCA Commission: Joseph Zeal Henry, SUPA System
SUPA System is a sonic sculpture and public infrastructure by Joseph Zeal Henry (2024, Loeb/ArtLab Fellow) with Deborah Garcia. As spatial practitioners and designers, they explore music and sound as materials for constructing physical spaces. 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. It is adorned in indigo, a plant massively extracted from India and West Africa during the slave trade — but associated with protection and health in pre-colonial times. SUPA System is a testament to the transformative potential of sonic social culture.
Launched at ArtLab in May 2024 at ArtsThursdays Open Studio, SUPA System is temporarily installed in the ArtLab HUB as a focal point for listening sessions and more events to be announced. This project is part of Joseph Zeal Henry’s Loeb/ArtLab fellowship.
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. Since 2009, the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) has advised the president and provost on developing policies and plans that will enhance the presence of the arts at the University. HUCA strives to make the arts a central component of the University’s educational mission.
The Loeb Fellowship and the Graduate School of Design provided additional support for this project.