Back in May 2022, while providing visual projections for an Event Horizons show at The Rotunda in Philadelphia, I met the multitalented Taji Ra’oof Nahl (aka TR7). Since then, we’ve stayed in touch and have been slowly working on some collaborative projects.
TR7’s Microfilm Festival is an ongoing, constantly evolving audio-visual performance/installation that travels to different locations.
This iteration of Microfilm Festival on Oct 23 2022 @ 6:00 PM at The Rotunda is an immersive site response video installation exploring the dynamics of the 18th century polymath Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac & Ephemeris.
TR7 creates an “Art Happening” that registers with the spirit of improvisation and ephemeral matrix of modalities in Banneker’s groundbreaking works. What is being presented is an experience in the human condition. TR7’S cinematic avant-garde approach makes use of spatial dimensions of the Rotunda’s various vantage points.
Much like an almanac, Ra’oof extends the platform as nexus points for screening video works by contributing artists.
All videos run simultaneously on various screens/surfaces while an improvisational score is provided by The Other Sounds of Philadelphia.
Featuring video works by:
Brian Bazemore
Jeremy dePrisco
Sherman Fleming
Theodore A. Harris
Hprizm
Gralin Hughes
Leroy Johnson
Nsenga Knight
James Maurelle
Andrew Norris & Mio Nakia
Jamele Ransom
John Schlesinger & Tamara Suber
TR7
Live Soundtrack Scoring Session with TR7’s
The Other Sounds of Philadelphia – featuring:
Jason Carr
Jeremy dePrisco
Mark Dilks
Nate Totushek
Another Ra’oof Atelier/2Spiral Art Happening
Taji Ra’oof Nahl (aka TR7) is an American interdisciplinary artist and composer whose artistic vocabulary delves into social commentary via historical and futurist cinematic aesthetic. Installation, video, performance, sonic compositions, sculpture, & painting are utilities that embodies abstract and poetic narrative for his oeuvre for what he describes as “artistic avant-garde journalism”.
Ra’oof creative research processes has ushered works through archival materials & muses Benjamin Banneker Marian Anderson among others. With resources from Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild & University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center new works are in progress.
The autodidact artist has exhibited works at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Synesthesia space NYC, Italian Palace Tangier Morocco, Ghana Film Festival Accra Ghana, Fels Planetarium, Ibrahim Theater, Marginal Utility Gallery Philadelphia & Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts among others.
The Other Sounds Of Philadelphia, spearheaded by TR7, is a loose collective of musicians exploring new sonic improvisational territories.
