Saturday, December 2nd at 8pm, ISSUE is pleased to present the third iteration of Solve et Coagula → عيب from 2023 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence BINT. The project builds to its conclusion with a final work premiering at NYU Brooklyn’s “The Garage” space, adjacent to the Jay St. Metrotech subway stop. Stage III: حمراء (The Reddening) follows earlier residency presentations at MITU580 and CPR–Center for Performance Research. Solve et Coagula → عيب began with the collection of shame experiences from people of the MENASA (Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian) diaspora. The processing of these shared experiences through ritualistic sound has been the focus of BINT’s residency.
Over the course of the year, BINT presents three programs mirroring the primary stages of (Arabic) alchemical transmutation functioning as immersive audio-visual rituals; wherein the collected shame stories are transmuted through sound and direct audience experience. The programs are loosely based upon the structure and setting of Sufi sem’a, a traditional Sufi gathering in which a third communal space is created (often underground, hidden from orthodox authorities) for the purposes of deep listening, chanting, movement, as well as participatory acts of devotion.
Combining all the rhythmic elements of the first two stages, BINT will collaborate live (electronics, sampling, voice) with renowned NY-based tabla player, Roshni Samlal.
Notes from BINT on Stage III: حمراء (The Reddening):
This year culminates with the final stage of transmutation, ‘The Reddening’ (حمراء). This last program is inspired by dhamaal, a lively South Asian type of sem’a, highlighting rhythm and movement.
The past two months have weighed heavy on the world as the events in Gaza have continued to escalate to horrific levels of heartbreak and helplessness everyday. Any impulse to create, make music, even “celebration as an affront” mentioned in the original press release, has been impossible. The only way I could pull through with the show as scheduled is to create a space to gather and channel the red feelings I, we, many of us have been grappling with.
Reddening, less as passionate celebration and more as liberation. The visceral answer of what it is to resist, to unite in solidarity in the face of oppression. Rhythms of resistance. Movement as resistance.
The container of this series has been transmuting collective shame from stories submitted by MENASA folks in diaspora. Some of this will inherently be part of the gathering but I’ve opted to finish working those privately in order to hold space in this way.
BINT is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn. Working across visual, performance and sound art, BINT applies contemporary methods to the traditional multicultural technologies of her ancestries (Pakistani, Egyptian, American, etc). With a focus on inherited metaphysical tech, her practice is interested in the perennial role of the artist-mystic in cultural preservation and liberation work. As a musician, BINT turns to a palette of dissonance, distortion, long-form drones and noise to access corresponding emotional states in herself and listeners–most known for her unusual approach to processed harmonium and multilingual vocals, through tape, analog synthesis and pedals.
In 2019, BINT released Katabasis: Act I, an EP applying dark ambient power electronics and Arabic mother tongue to her classical Hindustani vocal training. She has shown work internationally including performance art commissions for Black Sabbath, the Copro Gallery, Atelier de Mélusine and visual work at Coachella Music and Arts Festival. BINT is founder of The Barzakh, a podcast and educational platform focused on the revival and reclamation of Islam’s rich heritage of the occult and metaphysics. BINT is an ISSUE Project Room 2023 Artist-In-Residence. Their first program "عيب:Solve et Coagula Stage I: تسويد (The Blackening)” was presented at MITU580 in March 2023.
Roshni Samlal is a New York-based, Trinidadian tabla player who has studied within the Farrukhabad, Benares and Punjab gharanas or schools of Indian classical percussion. Born in Trinidad, she was introduced to the tabla by her vocalist father, Mukund Samlal who was an eminent singer and harmonium player in the renaissance of South Asian ancestral arts that swept through 1960’s Trinidad, pioneered by H.S. Adesh. Roshni is now a prolific local teacher and performer, both in traditional, soloist repertoire, as a classical accompanist(Pt. Krishna Bhatt, Steve Gorn, Sobroto Roy Chowdhury) as well as within a variety of jazz, experimental and chamber ensembles(In D Ensemble, Arkinetics, Orakel.) Roshni also explores creating sound design landscapes and Ableton beat production as a narratorial context for tabla solos, incorporating poetry and sound collages that speak to topics of indentureship, post-colonial Caribbean identity, migration. She is the co-curator and producer of the Ragini Festival which focuses on spotlighting the work of artists engaged in traditional folk and innovative arts within the further reaches of the South Asian diaspora, focusing on Indo-Caribbean heritage. Roshni also crafts DJ sets influenced by her heritage and experiences as an immigrant during the 90’s.
