Taji Ra'oof Nahl
Turn of Events/ Warmongers
Tin, wire, rubber & paint
Signature / Guarded Prayer
Steel, wool
Caged Domestic
Aluminum, steel, mirror, fur
Artist Statement
As a conceptual artist, the nexus of my practice revolves around avant-garde abstractions. My thought processes and my soul’s expression through this modality of production are to please the Creator of heaven, earth and all that dwells in between with the intention of stimulating dialogues and uplifting society through agencies of freedom, justice and prosperity. I intend the sculptures, installations and videos to be vessels for what I like to call “artistic journalism,” reporting on current events to convey the best of human experience and human decency. Sometimes we must recognize truths, even if it is against our own interests. My social commentary on the state of the union and the world must confront the cancerous elements that are in our environment.
Sculptures included in Voices and Visionaries are inspired by the historical figure, 18th-century polymath Benjamin Banneker and are titled, Turn of Events/ Warmongers, Signature/Guarded Prayer and Caged Domestic. Performance adds another dimension, bringing a manifestation to these philosophical ideas and notions of contributing to society. During the opening reception, the sculptures will be activated during a performance, Gaslight: The New Kabuki Theatre.
Benjamin Banneker’s range of contributions has been a catalyst for my works in sculpture, performance and video. The Calculating Banneker Continuum project is where I cultivate narratives. Often I develop site-responsive work. Thanks to Philadelphia Sculptors’ invitation to create at the Cherry Street Pier, I was able to bring to fruition some research ideas and concepts around Banneker’s almanacs, printed nearby at 2nd and Chestnut Streets. Banneker’s enduring legacy radiates during his era, a time when African Americans were considered three-fifths of a man. Despite this debilitating factor it did not stop Banneker from teaching himself mastery over the discipline of astronomy. He qualified as a mind that rivaled those of Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse, becoming the first to posit a theory of multiple universes.
About the Artist
Taji Ra'oof Nahl, aka TR7, is an American interdisciplinary artist and composer whose artistic vocabulary delves into social commentary via historical and futurist aesthetic. Installation, video, performance, sonic compositions, sculpture, and painting are utilities that embody poetic and abstract narrative for his oeuvre of what he describes as “artistic avant-garde journalism.”
Solo exhibitions include Marginal Utility Gallery, Synesthesia NYC, Indigo Bleu Design & Cultural Center, Bird Park - Philadelphia, Little Berlin Annex Space and Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia. National and international group exhibitions include the Italian Palace, Tangier Morocco; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College; Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania; the Academy of Fine Arts; Averill and Bernard Leviton Gallery, Columbia College of Chicago; African American Art Museum, Philadelphia; Fels Planetarium; Ibrahim Theater, International House, Philadelphia; Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia; Accra Film Festival, Accra Ghana; West Chester University; Goggleworks, Reading; Ice Box Project Space; Philadelphia City Hall; and Moore College of Art.
Commissioned projects include Paul Robeson House, Philadelphia; Fairmount Park Conservancy; with performance works at Kimmel Center; Pioneer Works Brooklyn; Arthur Ross Gallery Philadelphia; Vox Populi; ICA Philadelphia; Harlem Gatehouse, NYC; Masjidullah Cultural Center Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania; and Cherry Street Pier. Under Ra1oof Atelier’s production house, he has created three stage productions including Frederick Douglas Says Stay Free, 2015; Everybody wants to be Malcolm, 2016; and Polaris News, 2020.
His work received recognition by Artblog with the People’s Choice Award. Other awards include PEW Fellow 2015 (wish list); 2019 Velocity Grant (co-recipient with Tim Belknap);
Artist-In-Residence Icebox Project Space 2017; and residency at Marginal Utility Gallery 2020. Ra’oof served as artistic director at the American Muslim Museum & Archive and at the John Coltrane House, Philadelphia. His work has been published in Essence Magazine, GQ Japan, and as part of the Apple iPhone campaign.