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Research Guides@Tufts

Tufts University Art Galleries: Impossible Music: Exhibition Overview

Jan 16 – Apr 20, 2025, Aidekman Arts Center / Medford

A survey of the sonic vanguard, Impossible Music brings together sounds, scores, sculptureTufts University Art Galleries Logos, video, and live performances to explore the radical, interdisciplinary potential of conceptual and experimental music. The group exhibition features work across mediums by boundary-defying composers, artists, and collectives including Terry Adkins, Black Quantum Futurism, Nikita Gale, Sarah Hennies, Tom Johnson, Christine Sun Kim, Conlon Nancarrow, Aki Onda, and C. Spencer Yeh.

Impossible Music calls attention to the transformative power of sound as a tool for social change, innovation, and empowerment. From the banned to the bombastic, the exhibition highlights the work of visionary artists who pushed music forward, defying norms and piloting new forms of expression.

Impossible Music is curated by Candice Hopkins and Raven Chacon and organized by the ICA Pittsburgh (formerly Miller ICA), Pittsburgh. Organized at TUAG by Dina Deitsch.

Terry Adkins

Darkwater Record, 2003 - 2008, Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery

Black Quantum Futurism

an. image of a horse

Mmere Dane: Black Time Belt, Courtesy of the artist

Nikita Gale

drum set with water being sprayed on it

DRRRUMMERRRRRR, 2019 – ongoing, Courtesy of Reyes | Finn

Tom Johnson

hand drawing of musical notes swirling around each other

Untitled [Imaginary music series], 1975, Courtesy of àngels barcelona

C. Spencer Yeh

two speakers facing each other in a white room

Mei-Jia & Chih-Fu, 2023, Courtesy of the artist

Christine Sun Kim

six framed images with musical notes written on them

Six Types of Waiting in Berlin, 2017, Courtesy of François Ghebaly (Los Angeles | New York)

Conlon Nancarrow

A piano

Studies for Player Piano (Study #5, Study #12, Study #21, Study #27, Study #36)

Sarah Hennies

A dark room with a video projected on a screen of the artist

Contralto, 2017, Courtesy of the artist

Aki Onda

an aqua platform with a series of hand bells arranged on it

Spirits Known and Unknown, 2021, Courtesy of the artist

Key Questions/Questions for Self-Guided Exploration:

• Think about the title of the exhibition. What do you think the curators mean by calling some music impossible? How are the artists in this exhibition composing or addressing impossibility?

• Artists such as Black Quantum Futurism, C. Spencer Yeh and Sarah Hennies invite us to think about the ways sound and music can reflect one's identity. How are these artists using their work to center different voices?

• In what ways has music and musical expression played a role in or functioned as a tool of resistance?

• Many of the artists in Impossible Music are experimenting with new forms of sound, music, or art practice. Are there areas in your life or activities you participate in where you employ strategies of experimentation or improvisation? How are these practices generative?