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Night in the Garden of Love
Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef

WIELS, Brussels

18 May - 13 August 2023

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Installation view, Night in the Garden of Love, Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef, WIELS, Brussels. Photography © We Document Art.

Installation view, Night in the Garden of Love, Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef, WIELS, Brussels. Photography © We Document Art.

Installation view, Night in the Garden of Love, Inspired by & featuring Yusef Lateef, WIELS, Brussels. Photography © We Document Art.

Night in the Garden of Love is an exhibition developed by Shezad Dawood and inspired by the creative output of African-American musician, composer, allamah/polymath Yusef Lateef. Titled after Lateef’s 1988 novella, the exhibition features music and a selection of drawings by Lateef together with five new, interconnected works by Dawood: a VR experience, a suite of painted textiles, a garden of algorithmic plants growing digitally in response to a series of live improvisational music sessions, costume-sculptures and live choreography.

Shezad Dawood (b.1974) is a British artist known for his exploration of non-Western traditions that inform and intersect with established canons, whether in the field of architecture or, as in this case, music. His playful, research-driven work encompasses many forms and media, breaking down the boundaries between the analogue and digital. Since 2013, he has explored the conceptual possibilities of VR as an integral part of his practice. This is his largest presentation of new work since 2019 and his first solo exhibition in Belgium. It is commissioned by WIELS together with the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto.

Yusef Lateef (1920-2013) 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.

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 Night in the Garden of Love 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,” states Dawood.

"It is meant to be an utmost metaphysical space, but I read Lateef's garden as a virtual space."

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.

Curated by Zoë Gray & Helena Kritis.

Produced by UBIK Productions. Co-commissioned by WIELS, Brussels and Aga Khan Museum, Toronto.

Still from Night in the Garden of Love (Digital Seedbanks), 2023. Digital work, 7 algorithmically generated plants responding to a new music score, 01:56:00. Produced by and courtesy of UBIK Productions. Co-commissioned by WIELS, Brussels and Aga Khan Museum, Toronto.

Night in the Garden of Love (Digital Seedbanks) are seven algorithmically generated plants responding to a new musical score.

Each screen presents an algorithmically generated plant, reminiscent of the painted forms of the textile pieces. The seedbanks grow before our eyes, ebbing and flowing through a fluctuating passage of time inspired by Lateef’s autophysiopsychic musical method. In January 2023, Dawood recorded a new improvisation session following Lateef’s Autophysiopsychic approach with several of his former collaborators and students; this was composed and arranged by Adam Rudolph and Alexis Marcelo, additional composition by Ralph Miles Jones, and featuring: Batya Sobel, Matt Waugh, Gwen Laster, Mia Theodoratus and Stephanie Griffin. The results are split between the different Seedbanks, creating individual soundtracks that overlap and intertwine to create a new musical composition.

Click here to view an excerpt.

Created and envisioned by: Shezad Dawood

Produced by: Miranda Sharp

Score composed and performed by: Adam Rudolph, Alexis Marcelo & Ralph Miles Jones

Arranged by: Adam Rudolph with Alexis Marcelo and Shezad Dawood

With additional performances by: Batya Sobel, Matt Waugh, Gwen Laster, Mia Theodoratus & Stephanie Griffin

Engineer: James Dellatacoma

Coders: GumGum Studio

Still from Night in the Garden of Love (VR), 2023. VR environment, duration variable. Produced by and courtesy of UBIK Productions. Co-commissioned by WIELS, Brussels and Aga Khan Museum, Toronto.

A new 2-player VR environment launched as part of Shezad Dawood's exhibition 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.

Two visitors at a time can wear VR head-sets to enter a virtual reality experience, riffing on scenes from Lateef’s novella. A key figure is the Mutant, who moves through the script like a dancer, guiding visitors through Lateef’s vision, as re-imagined by Dawood. The soundtrack features original recordings by Lateef released on his own label, YAL Records. This is the first time Dawood has created a dual-player VR experience, to underscore the idea of a garden as a space for intimacy and dialogue.

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. “It is meant to be an almost metaphysical space, but I read Lateef’s garden as a virtual space.”

Click here to view a trailer.

Written and directed by: Shezad Dawood

Produced by: Miranda Sharp

Coders & 3D design: Monochrome

Mutant dancer: Wan-Lun Yu

Tracks: Daydream, Phase Transition, Instrumental Ritornello #1, Monadic Adventure, Instrumental Gospel, Saturday Morning, all tracks composed by Yusef Lateef for YAL Records and published by Spirit One Music Crescendo obo Alnur Music (BMI)

Musical trio: Mia Theodoratus (harp), Adam Rudolph (slit drum), Ralph Miles Jones (bamboo flute)

Voices: Ilham Tamet (Arabic & French), Huan Mus (Portuguese), Batya Sobel, Gwen Laster and Ralph Miles Jones (English)

Film footage: Robbrecht Desmet, Ruben Desiere, Lennert De Taeye