Azikiwe Mohammed's High Line Performance "First Excursions First Horizons"

Azikiwe Mohammed works fluidly across a wide variety of mediums, making paintings, jewelry, furniture, photographs, tapestries, and sculptures that draw from a set of aesthetics found in the Black home as it exists in America. Especially attracted to wood and neon for their tactile warmth, Mohammed often assembles his objects into immersive, room-like installations, making spaces in which viewers can feel instinctively safe and reflected. At the heart of all of Mohammed’s work is a love for other people and a desire to open up spaces where we can share—and be—together.

As DJ Black Helmet, Mohammed realizes First Excursions First Horizons, a new sound performance for the High Line. New York City-based musicians Taja Cheek and Peter Toussaint will perform sets based on custom-made records made by Mohammed. The records hold recordings of sounds of the everyday Black experience and are played in DJ Black Helmet’s / Mohammed’s search for the less terrestrial sounds of Blackness. The work builds on Mohammed’s multidisciplinary practice that extends into sound and performance and activates the full length of the park, creating an immersive and transformative experience.

Locations:

• Monday, June 5: On the High Line, near and around 30th Street and 10th Avenue
  
• Tuesday, June 6: On the High Line, between 22nd and 25th Streets
  
• Wednesday, June 7: On the High Line, near and around 17th Street
  
• Thursday, June 8: On the High Line in 14th Street Passage, at 14th Street

Artist Bio:

Azikiwe Mohammed (b. 1983, New York, New York) lives and works in New York City. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at institutions including Transformer, Washington, DC (2022); The Seaport, New York, New York (2021); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia (2019); and Knockdown Center, Maspeth, New York (2017). He has participated in recent group exhibitions including because I am that, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California (2022); Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art, MoAd, San Francisco, California, and Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia; and This Is The Day, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (2021).

Photo Release:

By attending this event, you agree that photos and/or video footage of you may be taken, and you grant your permission to Friends of the High Line and its agents/licensees to use such photos/footage for promotional and other purposes.

Host or Publisher High Line Art