The Last Quarter

Ra'oof Atelier

The Art of Beneficial Knowledge

Presents

Calculating Banneker: Cross Pollination - The Hive Triptych Cells

"And your Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in men's habitations"

Sacred Quran - Sura Nahl 16, ayat 68

This is a three part staged production of abstract gestures which expound upon Benjamin Banneker's oeuvre.

Video Almanac - White Papers Scrolls TR7 presents a new work in dialogue with the material histories of a former factory – turned in part a furniture store.

With precise glances at histories and reflections on aesthetic, social structures and relationships, it asserts a politics of imagination, motion and performance that derives from connections among the real and created objects, machinery of contemporary living, with an awareness of nature, urban sites & future possibilities. The echoing soundscapes underscores the aesthetics.

An exploration in conceptual possibilities as a shared framework for translating intersecting roles of human ecology, built environment & media.

TR7’s syncretic approach manifest as “ Field Trips “ through photographs, videos, assemblages & performances housed in installations for activations are the components for his refractive staged production of time based media.

Working through the metaphor of the honeybee’s cosmology, the productive nature & materials triangulation as contemplation on space and time. The works manifest as modern day hieroglyphics that are inscribed throughout 40,000 square feet of industrial landscape.

The live performers enact parallel iconic characters that draw from history, popular culture, science & speculative hypothesis with source materials ranging from Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Marian Anderson & Paul Robeson and others as they “push back” within and around assumptions about prescribed cultural politics. The live performance & installation is supported by a live sound score created and performed by TR7 ‘s Other Sounds of Philadelphia. Also included are TR7’s - Sonic Sculpture Ensemble & Abstract Dynamics which rotate through a series documented field trips;

Featuring: Jamaaladeen Tacuma, G. Calvin Weston, George Lewis, Raphael Xavier, Sharon Chestnut, Jamal Cyrus, Kamua Amu Patton, Hprizm, Keir Johnson & Ernel Martinez of AmberArts, Mustafa Nur, Nate Totushek, Mark Dilks, Hansom Ransom, The Mighty Farooq, Ihba Baskette, FutureFamers’s Amy Franceschini & Lode Vande & Shaun Walker among others.

The White Papers Scrolls

A series of live hour long improvised music sessions where artists respond to the spatial environment & content of evolving video essays & poems from Ra’oof’s catalog inspired by Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac.

Featuring on various days during the month of September & October Ra’oof Invitationals respondents are; Dan Blacksberg + Mark Dilks + Ihba Baskette, Ryoko O’Hara + Nate Totushek + Walter Gershon + Aaron Pond + Sequoyah + Gladys Nobriga + Alex Walcroft + Shaun Walklrgshizz + Sunniva Hovde +

In addition to the relational aesthetic of TR7’s practice - Ra’oof Invitational’s spatial activation with sessions with Len Davidson, Daniel Tucker, Imani Roach, Anwar Jabari, Willam Honesty ll, Jude Spencer among others.

Plus, featuring videos works of Brian Bazemore, Gralin Hughes, John Schlesinger, Sherman Fleming among others.

The Hive - Triptych Cell

A Calculating Banneker-Cross Pollination

photo by George Bilyk

Good day-

come on a Ra’oof Atelier Field Trip to the Hive Triptych Cell

A staged production

Anytime between

1 - 6 Thursday

Friday 3-7

Sunday 12-4

Let me know, we are in last days.

This is by appointment only

call 215 866 8599 to be accommodated

Legacy Furniture Building

2nd Floor

Near 5th on Allegheny / Furniture Plaza lot

432 W Allegheny Ave Philadelphia, PA 19133

• *Park at Furniture Plaza parking lot next to white box truck & wait in lot to be escorted on premises.Thanks for your cooperation., Taji