My current works mine what I term the Afro Sonic Signifier - I argue that this mnemonic network of sound is a primary element that has kept the transnational African Diaspora intact. Through research of African diaspora histories, mythologies and cosmologies I employ a plethera of materials such as boxing gloves, raw cotton, police batons, drum sticks, bull whips, burnt electric guitars, used 1970’s tennis racquets, 45 rpm vinyl records and guitar plectrums, as well as drawings and paintings.
These works are accompanied by self composed sonic texts (sound-scapes): a form of sonic cartography to map out historical and fantastical Afro-futuristic Black Atlantic journeys - voyages from Slave Ship to Space Ship. Through research, narrative, imagination, myth and fantasy I persevere to contribute to the ongoing construction of a new all-inclusive Black cultural identity.
Biography
Satch Hoyt, born in London of British and African-Jamaican ancestry, is currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. He makes sculptures and installations accompanied with sound, as well as paintings and drawings.
There is a dichotomy in the genres that define two sides of the same coin: a dual and complementary reflection on the African Diaspora and its multi-fold consequences. The sculptural trope in Hoyt’s work addresses the facts on the ground, so to speak, of black experience, while the drawings tap into a spirit of fantasy, refuge, and transcendence - they are vehicles for an imaginative journey beyond the obduracy and oppressiveness of history.
With regards to his musical accomplishments Satch Hoyt has composed a number of songs with Grace Jones; noteworthy, is 7 Day Weekend which is on the triple platinum soundtrack album of the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang. Hoyt played flute on Louise Bourgeois’ OTTE, and is flautist - percussionist in Burt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber since 2001.
Hoyt has sung and played on numerous recordings and has recently recorded a new album in Berlin, Battlefields Of Peace, under the pseudonym Pharaoh Dreams which includes guest musicians Julia Kent (Anthony and the Johnsons), Cass Lewis (Skunk Anansie), Earl Harvin (Me’shell Ndegocello) and Dave Smoota Smith (TV On The Radio). The album is co-written and co-produced with Dirk Leyers.
Selected Exhibitions and Projects
Afro-Sonic Mapping, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2019)
Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans, USA (2017)
German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (2017)
Les Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France (2016)
Listeners Digest, Raw Material, Dakar, Senegal (2016)
March Madness, Gallery Fort Gansevoort, NYC, USA (2016)
Hip Hop, L’Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, France (2015)
The Beautiful Game, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2014)
Rehearsal at Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah GA (2013)
Radical Presence, Black Performance in contemporary Art, Grey Art Gallery, New York University (2013)
Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, Museum for the Holocaust and Human Rights, Mechelen Belgium (2012)
Radical Presence, CAMH Texas (2012)
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, ICA Boston (2011)
The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2010).
San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico (2009)
The Beijing Biennial, China (2008)
Infinite Island, Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum (2007)
Equatorial Rhythms, Stenersen Museum, Norway (2007)
Black Light White Noise, Sound and Light in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2007)
The Tate Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2004)
Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art (2004)
Brown v. Board of Education, Gallery 138, New York (2004)
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti,
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003)
Traveling to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2004) and the Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (2004)
The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003)
Body Power/Power Play, Württembergische Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2002)
SportCult, Apexart, New York (2001)
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Afro-Sonic Mapping, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
2017
Hair Combing Cycle 1530, Museo Tertulia Cali, Colombia
2015
Riding Celestial Chariots, Gallerie Wedding, Berlin, Germany
2011
Tale Spinner, Nomad Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2008
Rhythm and Rhyme, Galerie Steinek, Vienna, Austria
2007
For Love of Sugar, St. Pauls Cathedral, London, UK
Satch Hoyt, Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France
2006
Game, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 Get Up, Stand Up Now - Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, UK
Blickachsen 12, Sculpture Biennial, Bad Homburg, Germany
2018
RESPECT: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom, The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA), California, USA
Dakar Biennial 2018 - Exploring The Sonic Cosmologies of Halim El-Dabh, Dakar Senegal
The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Florida, USA
2017
Documenta 14, Every Time A Ear di Soun, Unpacking Sonic Migrations from Slaveship to Spaceship, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2016
German Colonialism: Fragments Past and Present, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany
Les Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
Listeners Digest, Raw Material, Dakar, Senegal
March Madness, Gallery Fort Gansevoort, NYC, USA
2015
Hip Hop, L’Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Control Mode Feedback, Halle14, Leipziger Baumwoll Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2014
The Beautiful Game, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
1st Cartagena Biennal, Cartagena, Colombia
Wir Sind Alle Berliner 1884 to 2014, Savvy Contemporary Berlin, Germany
2013
Rehearsal, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah USA
Radical Presence: Black Performance in contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, USA; Grey Art Gallery New York University, New York, USA
The Space Between Us, IFA Gallery, Berlin Germany
2012
Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, Kazerne Dossin Museum, Mechlen, Belgium
Thrown Together, Nomad Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2011
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Institute ofContemporary Art, Boston, USA, Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Nomadic Settlers, Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
The Art Is A Combat Sport, Museum of Fine Arts, Calais, France
Stay Hungry, Kleingartenkolonie am Gleisdreieck, Berlin, Germany
Spoken Word, Kaaitheater, Brussels, Belgium
2010
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, USA
The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
2009
The San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Rockstone & Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Art Ways, Hartford, USA
Zeigen, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany
Small World, Triple Candie Gallery, New York, USA
The Scramble, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany
Real Art Ways | Public Art Program, Hartford, USA
Laboratorio #3: Way Out, Lisbon, Portugal
2008
The Sickness Of the Hunting Part 1, MAMAC, Nice, France
Building Bridges, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Beijing Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2007
Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Black Light White Noise, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, USA
Equatorial Rhythms, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
For the Love of the Game, The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, USA
La Quinzaine de L'entorse, Maison Wazemmes, Lille, France
Theatrum Mundi, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
Reparations/If It Ain’t Broke, Gallery 138 & Stony Brook University, New York, USA
2006
The Beautiful Game: Contemporary Art and Fútbol, Roebling Hall, New York, USA
Artificial Afrika, Gigantic Art Space, New York,NY, USA
The Whole World is Rotten, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
Black Panther Rank and File, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Analog, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK
2005
Rundlederwelten, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Sports Illustrated, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York, USA
Living for the City, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, USA
Sport, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, USA
Propeller, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2004
Tate Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK
Exposition de Sculptures, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, USA
Brown v. Board of Education, Gallery 138, New York, USA
2003
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA; Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
Re-Do China, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, USA
2002
A Moment’s Notice, Inman Gallery, Houston, USA
Art New York, Kunsträume auf Zeit, Linz, Austria
Body Power/Power Play, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
Where the Boys Are, Clementine Gallery, New York, USA
2001
Boxer, Kunsthalle Tirol, Hall, Austria
Encounters, Monterrey, Mexico
SportCult, Apexart, New York, USA
Residencies
2017
Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist-in-Residence Program
Lugar a Dudas, Cali, Colombia
2016
RAW Material Academy Residency, Dakar, Senegal Hangar Art Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2014
SOMA Art Residency, Mexico City, Mexico
2013
Headlands Art Residency, Sausalito, USA 2007
Red Mansion Art Foundation, Beijing, China
2002
Art Omi International, International Artists’ Colony
Awards
2002
New York State Council on the Arts Grant
Music & Performance
2019
It's After the End of the World, performance in collaboration with Annika Larsson, in Encores: Music on Recurrence, Redundancy and Surplus, artgeneve, Venice, Italy
It's After the End of the World, performance in collaboration with Annika Larsson, as part of “Wo kommen wir hin" at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
How sound informs, defines and explains radical black culture, talk and performance with Earl Harvin in A Utopian Stage, a project of SAVVY Contemporary funded by MaerzMusik - Festival für Zeitfragen, Berlin, Germany
2017
The Bakol Performance, Ovalhouse, London, UK
Cleopatras Chariot, Album Project with Earl Harvin and Satch Hoyt, Berlin, Germany
2016
PLURIVERSALE V, Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne, Germany
The Bakol, Black Mass Biotek video, NYC, USA & Berlin, Germany
2015
Sonic Shadow, performance Gallerie Wedding, Berlin
2014
Black Maas Biotek Bakol, performance Heimathafen, Berlin, Germany
Sonic Shadow, performance Berghaim Kantine, Berlin, Germany
Afro Sonic Signifier, limited edition album on Flipping The Coin Recordings, Berlin, Germany
2001-Present
Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, New York (flute & percussion) Performances: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia; Summer Stage, Central Park, New York, “The Rites” (Butch Morris conduction); The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, UK; The Kennedy Centre, Washington D.C.; “Porgy & Bess The AstroBlack Trapfish Row Variations”, Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz, Sardinia & Lincoln Center, New York (2020)
1997-1995
Composed, arranged, and played (flute, vocals) with various ensembles such as
Grace Jones, Paris, France; various artists, Kenya
Louise Bourgeois, Paris, France.
Acted as musicologist and commentator on Music of Kenya, as part of the BBC series Music about Us
Selected Bibliography
2019 Fred Moten, all that beauty, Letter Machine Editions Satch Hoyt, “Musik hat nie eine Revolution gewonnen”, in Musik öffnet Welten, ed. Ronald Grätz and Christian Höppner, Steidl Verlag Precious Adesina, Style, Beauty and Black Identity, BBC, London, August 28, 2019
2015
Andy Geurif, Face a-face, Editions Palette, France
Krista A. Thompson, Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice, Duke University Press, USA
2014
Franklin Sirmans, Carlos Rolon (Ed.), Boxed: A Visual History of the Art of Boxing, published by Damiani / Paul Kasmin Gallery Satch Hoyt & Anna Schrade, A Choreographed Dance, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet (Ed.), The Space Between Us, Kerber Verlag, Berlin, Germany
2013
Dr. Claudia Hucke, A Griot Telling Stories of the Diaspora, ARC Magazine, Issue 08, New York, USA
2011
Terry Smith, Contemporary Art, World Currents, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA
Bonaventure Ndikung, Nomadic Settlers, Settled Nomads, The catalogue of the exhibition Nomadic Settlers, Settled Nomads, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin, Germany Jean Marc Huitorel, L'Art Est Un Sport D'e Combat, Analogues Press, France
2010
Satch Hoyt, Hybrid Navigator, Small Axe 14:2, An issue of: Small Axe:A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, Number: 32, Duke University Press, USA
2009
Jens Hoffmann, 2da Trienal Poli/Grafica de San Juan, ICP, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2008
Beijing Biennale Catalogue, National Art Museum of China Margherita Laera, Collezionismo, Vogue Italia, Milan, Italy Building Bridges: 8 Visions One Dream Today, Art Museum Beijing
The Sickness Of The Hunting Part 1, MAMAC, Nice, France Charles Stone, Satch Hoyt: A command of many medi-ums, The International Review of African American Art, Hampton University Press, USA
2007
Greg Tate, In Praise Of Shadow Boxing(Punchdrunk Love), Editions Pasnic Paris Claire Tancons, Breathing In The Beat Box: Rhyming and the Ring, About Satch Hoyt on Boxing as Poetry, Editions Pasnic Paris
Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum
Equatorial Rhythms, Stenersen Museum Oslo
Black Light White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
2005
Franklin Sirmans, Rundlederwelten (cat.),
Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Germany
Peter von Becker, Before the Goal Shot, Tagesspiegel, October 18 Stefan Peter, Here You Can See that Soccer is Really an Art Form…, Bild, October 20
Jean-Marc Huitorel (ed.), La Beauté du Geste: L’Art Contemporain et le Sport, Editions du Regard, Paris, France
Trevor Schoonmaker, Propeller (cat.), Steve Turner Gallery,
Los Angeles
2004
Open House: Working in Brooklyn (cat.), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA
Gary Morris, The Triangle in: International ‘04 (cat.), Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK
2003
Trevor Schoonmaker (Ed.), Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Holland Cotter, King of Music and All He Surveyed, The New York Times, July, New York, USA
Barbara Pollack, The Afrobeat Generation, The Village Voice, July, New York, USA
Deidre Stein Greben, A Multimedia Tribute to an African Icon, Newsday, July, New York, USA
Jonathan Adams, King of Cool and Kalakuta, Newsweek International, August, New York, USA
Olukemi Ilesanmi (Ed.), The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, Walker Art Center,
2002
Victor J. Fleming, Surrealism, NY Arts Magazine,
July / August, New York, USA
Andrea Jahn, Body Power/Power Play, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
Birgit Kolgen, Sport in der Kunst (Body Power in Stuttgart), Schwäbische Zeitung, September, Stuttgart, Germany Dietlind Hebestreit, Hallo, New York gibt es noch, Kultur Nachrichten, September, Linz, Austria
Adrienne Braun, Sport vor Ort, Stuttgarter Zeitung, September, Stuttgart, Germany
Burkhard Meier-Grolman, Stuttgart steht im Boxring, Stutt garter Zeitung, September, Stuttgart, Germany
In the Field, Honey, New York, November
Helen Allen, SportCult, apexart, New York; Flash Art Inter-national, November/December, New York, USA
Franklin Sirmans, SportCult, apexart, New York, Time Out, October, New York, USA
Neustart für Kunsthalle Hall möglich, Der Standard, February, Vienna, Austria
Boxer in Hall geschändet, Tiroler Tageszeitung, January, Tirol, Austria