Liquid a Place

In collaboration with Pace Gallery and artist Torkwase Dyson, The Carvery Studio produced 50 limited edition dubplates as part of Dyson's recent installation which inaugurated the new gallery in Hanover Square.

As part of her newly commissioned performance series and sculptural installation at Pace’s new London gallery at 5 Hanover Square, Torkwase Dyson released a limited-edition double A-Side acetate dubplate featuring her collaboration with perennial DJ and producer Ron Trent alongside a track by multi-disciplinary artist GAIKA. Although having worked across a breadth of mediums over the years, this marks Torkwase Dyson’s first venture into record production as well as the first time Pace Gallery’s publishing arm has released a record in its 61 years. The dubplate accompanies the project ‘Liquid a Place’ which transformed one of the gallery spaces at Pace with a series of sculptures activated by a site-specific sound piece. There were also live presentations and performances that took place amidst the sculptures from prominent writers, poets, dancers and musicians to explore issues of environmental racism, spatial liberation and sensoria.

‘What is systemic world building? How do we separate planetary world building and issues of climate change and relationship/difference to the Western construction of the universal that flattens and disappears people? When I continue my research in the space it simply also opens up space to hold liberation strategies and recognise autonomy/self-possesion.’

One-off acetate dubplates of unreleased music were used by DJs and producers to test new music on their listeners. This practice fuelled the dissemination of reggae, jungle, garage and grime across African and Caribbean diasporas in the UK. Therefore this particular format presented itself as a suitable vessel in Dyson’s practice for Black Compositional Thought, a working philosophy Dyson uses to consider how bodies of water, geographies and other physical and non-physical spaces are composed and inhabited by black and brown bodies throughout history. The music itself also ties in with her exploration of black spatial liberation strategies. The piece ‘Necessary Indeterminacies’ produced by Ron Trent is a house track featuring a series of vocal samples, inhalations and exhalations from key black female musicians archived by Dyson. While GAIKA, a multi-disciplinary artist from South London who coined his own musical genre ‘Ghetto Futurism’, presents ‘Marchioness’ which invokes the history of underground music and the black British and Caribbean dancehall rhythms he grew up with. 

The dubplate, cut by Frank and Nathaniel at The Carvery Studio is packaged in an artist-designed box featuring drawings and poetry by Dyson offering a unique insight into her multifaceted and experimental work. Visit the Pace Gallery website here to enquire about purchasing one of the limited edition records. Both tracks are also available to buy digitally here as well as appearing on all major streaming platforms.