Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste: Unmarked Car @ The Wattis Institute

At the center of Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste’s performance is his mobile sound sculpture, a Ford Crown Victoria decommissioned police car complete with tinted windows and a security partition. Known as a “workhorse” due to make and model’s durability and speed, with Unmarked Car, Toussaint-Baptiste has shifted its purpose. Once associated with surveillance and police violence, the car has been transformed into a low-frequency musical instrument and a platform for expression.

Toussaint-Baptiste’s performance creates tension and reflection: What shapes the experience of movement? Who is at risk? What does a vehicle for movement or freedom look like? Sound like?

Audience members may experience the performance either from outside the vehicle or from the driver’s seat. A conversation with the artist will follow.

Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste is a New York-Based artist, composer, and performer considering notions of errant relations which thrive across subjectivities. He has won numerous awards, and has presented visual and performance work nationally and internationally. Toussaint-Baptiste is a founding member of the performance collective Wildcat!, and frequently collaborates with performers and visual artists.

This program is part of the ongoing research season dedicated to the topic of labor.

RSVP requested, but not required.