Wiels | EN

Shezad Dawood (b. 1974) is known for his exploration of non-Western traditions that inform and intersect with established canons. Yusef Lateef (1920-2013) was an African-American composer and musician who pioneered the integration of world instruments to expand the boundaries of jazz traditions. Over time, he developed a methodology he called Autophysiopsychic music. “It is about heightened consciousness and aims to activate the physical, mental and spiritual senses simultaneously,” states Dawood. Aware of Lateef’s music since his own youth, Dawood became fascinated with Lateef’s ideas after seeing his drawings, which function as abstract musical notation, and present organic, plant-like forms.

Titled Night in the Garden of Love after Lateef’s 1988 novella, the exhibition features music and a selection of drawings by Lateef together with five new, interconnected works by Dawood. Dawood sees this exhibition as a dialogue between his practice and Lateef’s, like the call-and-response exchanges in musical improvisation. Dawood considers Lateef’s novella to be a forerunner of much recent cli-fi: sci-fi exploring climate issues. “There are all sorts of portals within Lateef’s novella, which moves from a dystopian future Detroit, into radical ideas of ecology and recycling,” he states. Dawood is interested in technology for its transformative potential to help us imagine new forms of togetherness.

Both Dawood and Lateef delve into the garden as an ancient and cross-cultural symbol. Dawood investigates the garden’s potential as a site of creation and optimism in the face of the climate crisis. He aims to write a poetics of environmentalism: seeing how art can awaken a new spiritual epiphany that can lead to change.

Dawood presents - for the first time outside the US - original drawings by Lateef which function as the heart of the exhibition. These works depict constellations of plants and tree-like forms that hover between figuration and abstraction.

Curators: Zoë Gray & Helena Kritis

The exhibition and its outreach programme are generously sponsored by GBL.

Thanks also to the Ekard Collection, Jhaveri Contemporary (Mumbai), Barakat Contemporary (Seoul) and Firmenich for their support.

The exhibition is produced in partnership with the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.

Special thanks to Ayesha Lateef for her ongoing support and enthusiasm, and to Alhena Katsof whose initiative and guidance helped make this project possible.