Another World That Sounds Like You – Live Events Program

Throughout March 2023
In-person at Gallery TPW, Toronto

Another World That Sounds Like You is a multi-faceted exhibition and audio project that features sound-based works engaging the acts of collective listening and sound-making. The exhibition and adjacent programs centre the relationship of sound to social, cultural and political movements and invite audiences to participate in an act of carefully listening together. For the span of the project, Gallery TPW is transformed into a cozy living room where visitors can spend time listening to the works of musicians and artists Bani Abidi, Nick Dourado, JJJJJerome Ellis, Urok Shirhan and Hong-Kai Wang.

A program of sonic events animates the exhibition, constituting further ways to listen together in live and unrecorded settings. The program takes shape as two constellations; the first is a two-day program entitled Embodied Listening that focuses on the haptic. It starts with a sound bath by Trish Lanns that transports the space into an audio meditation room, followed by a living room concert by JJJJJerome Ellis on the dulcimer and saxophone the next day. The second constellation manifests as a closing festival called Resistances & Rebellions that is steeped in the sounds of protests, the sonic strategies of the unheard and the radical sounds of joy and celebration. It includes a listening session with a collective of Iranian artists in Toronto, a lecture-performance by Urok Shirhan and a closing party.

Embodied Listening

Sound bath with Trish Lanns
Friday, March 3, 6-7pm

Sound bathing is an embodied medicine practice putting your mind and body into a calmer state to promote healing and rest. Immerse yourself in the soothing sounds of crystal bowls, chimes, ocean drums and shakers while being guided through meditation with Trisha. For this sound bath, the living room created for Another World That Sounds Like You becomes an audio meditation room, where you can sit or lie down comfortably, taking space and allowing time for deep restoration with sounds that invite deep sensations of calm.

Capacity 20 people. Register here.
Dress cozy, bring a blanket (optional)

Living room concert by JJJJJerome Ellis
Saturday, March 4, 6-7:30pm

In 2018, JJJJJerome Ellis started a series of apartment concerts in his home in Brooklyn that were interrupted by the pandemic. For Another World That Sounds Like You, JJJJJerome will perform a concert in similar style; gathered in the intimate living room space created at Gallery TPW where energies and reverberations could circulate between bodies. JJJJJerome will play the saxophone and hammered dulcimer.

Please note the gallery will be closed during the day on March 4th.

Resistances & Rebellions

INDEX II خوانش ٢
Thursday, March 30, 7-8:30pm

The second iteration in a series of events imagined and organized by a group of Iranian artists in Toronto, this listening session creates space for the sounds and dissonance of resistance emanating from the ongoing Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

A Loud Voice Never Dies by Urok Shirhan
Friday, March 31, 6-7pm

A Loud Voice Never Dies (2023) is a live lecture-performance that journeys through personal, anecdotal and political events — both recent and distant — that consider the role of (oppressed) sounds and voices in relation to forms of collectivity, dissidence and belonging. Conceived in the aftermath of the Lebanese and Iraqi October Revolutions of 2019 and the subsequent onset of the global pandemic, the work travels from unprecedented events where bodies and sounds erupted in public space, to moments of imposed silence and (violent) dispersal of bodies. Alternating between personal anecdotes, sound recordings and historical archive material, the piece weaves together various sonic fragments that trace some unlikely, and at times forgotten, alliances and active solidarities across vast geographic locations.

Closing Party
Friday, March 31, 7pm onwards

For more information on Another World That Sounds Like You, including artist and contributor biographies, curatorial essay and an extensive list of resources that informed the project, visit the project’s page on Gallery TPW or SAVAC’s websites.

In addition to the in-gallery audio works and live events, Another World That Sounds Like You takes shape through regular radio broadcasts in collaboration with CJRU 1280 AM, Toronto Metropolitan University’s community radio station. Every Tuesday at 10am in February and March, each artist’s audio track is aired via a focused program that includes discussions and reflections by radio volunteers and the project’s team.
Tune in here.

Another World That Sounds Like You features in-gallery audio works by: Bani Abidi, Nick Dourado, JJJJJerome Ellis, Urok Shirhan and Hong-Kai Wang, as well as a program of sonic events by Trish Lanns, JJJJJerome Ellis, INDEX II and Urok Shirhan, and a written contribution by Daniel McNeil. Voice over narration of the in-gallery audio program is read by Sukaina Kubba.

Curated by Toleen Touq in collaboration with Heather Canlas Rigg and Nedda Baba. Radio program managed by Quinton Bradshaw, Sean Warkentine and Annie Wong. Living Room furnishings fabricated by Véronique Sunatori. Sound engineering by Jason Doell. Gallery installation by Jonathon McCurley. Co-produced by SAVAC and Gallery TPW.

Gallery TPW is a leading artist-run centre dedicated to exhibiting underrepresented artistic and curatorial practices that push the boundaries of lens-based work.

170 St. Helens Ave
Toronto, ON, M6H 4A1
info@gallerytpw.ca | 416-645-1066

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 12pm – 5pm

The audio program of Another World That Sounds Like You plays consecutively and loops every 2.5 hours.

First playback: 12pm
Last playback: 2:30pm

Accessibility: Gallery TPW does have ramp access, an accessible ground-floor washroom, and clear, unobstructed pathways within the gallery. For more information, visit this link.

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) is a non-profit, artist-run centre in Canada dedicated to increasing the visibility of culturally diverse artists by curating and exhibiting their work, providing mentorship, facilitating professional development and creating a community for our artists.

401 Richmond Street West, Suite 450
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8, Canada
board@savac.net | 416-542-1661

Hours: By appointment only
Monday – Thursday 10am – 5pm

Gallery TPW & SAVAC are funded by Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.