Art Galleries at Black Studies,
University of Texas, Austin
Un-Tying Our Cosmic Ancestry
An exhibition by artist-in-residence Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees curated by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Professor Emerita of African and African Diaspora Studies
Click image below to start slide show
September 15 to December 9, 2023
Un-Tying Our Cosmic Ancestry Soundscape Created and mixed by Gideon Crevoshay
Falling into Language
An exhibition by Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees curated by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Professor Emerita of African and African Diaspora Studies.
Click image below to start slide show
August 31 to December 1, 2023
Falling Into Language: A Travelogue
At BCA CENTER June 4 — October 9, 2021
“Eve yearns to return to a primordial state when the misunderstandings caused by words no longer stand between her and the rest of creation. So she unnames all the animals, from the sea otters to the bees. When she’s done, she marvels on how they feel ‘far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier.’
referencing the Ursula K. Le Guin short story “She Unnames Them”
In Falling into Language: A Travelogue, Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees creates a mythical travelogue exploring a shared cosmic ancestry that connects us beyond the constraints of spoken and written language. TwoTrees’ immersive installation of paintings, soundscapes, and video feature contemporary vocables (a sequence of sounds and syllables without literal meaning) created in collaboration with musicians from Vermont, India and Japan. TwoTrees describes Falling into Language: A Travelogue as a visual manifestation of her experience engaging with ceremonial vocables that are deeply rooted in the oral tradition of her mixed Native American and African heritage.
The Artist recognizes the following musicians for their collaboration in the creation of Falling into Language: A Travelogue: Gideon Crevoshay, Yuji Nakagawa, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, Shruthi Veena Vishnawanth, Heidi Wilson and the viewers who participated in vocable workshops over the course of the installation.
Beginning her exploration through automatic writing, drawings, paintings and then sound, TwoTrees discovered a new, creative route to an unseen language – ultimately finding herself falling into a language that defied differentiation or separation. Combining score and imagery to create an immersive environment of visual vocables, Falling into Language: A Travelogue creates a moving visual manifestation of our shared cosmic ancestry beyond the constraints of language.
Click on the thumbnails below to start the video soundscape
The Vermont Soundscape
Gideon Crevoshay
and Heidi Wilson
The India/Japan Soundsape
Yuji Nakagawa
and Shruthi Veena Vishwanath
The Viewer Soundscape
Viewers and Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Art review: Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees, BCA Center
Click here to read Amy Lilly’s review in Seven Days
“that room did not make me think “Oh, I’m looking at Kaylynn’s work”, but a sense that I was being transported to some other place, that was only peripherally connected to you as an individual. Like it was something you unearthed…and were then dwarfed by. “
– Kevin Donegan, Artist