Radcliffe Bailey

This sonic sculpture extends Bailey’s afro-futurist explorations. The hulky structure simultaneously evokes a space capsule and a bunker, yet upon entrance offers a spiritual experience. Visitors attention is drawn upwards by sound. An open view of the sky frames a conch shell hovering overhead, emanating an expressive murmur. Blending temporalities, represented with sounds of railroads, ocean, crackling fire, and dogs, the soundtrack was made in collaboration with Okorie Johnson and recorded on a full moon. Vessel III suggests a fluid ordering of spacetime where past, present, and future mingle in memories and anticipation of lived experience.

Bailey spoke about his work for our Exhibition Audio Guide.

Catalogue

View the exhibition catalogue HERE, not available in print.

‘Chronos Cosmos: Deep Time, Open Space’ transforms Socrates Sculpture Park into a gateway to the universe, presenting artworks that consider space, time, and matter in relationship to celestial entities and earth-bound processes. In the open-air environment of the Long Island City waterfront park, the exhibition uses scale to put the universe in context, creating connection points to space and time.