Derek Fordjour | Nightsong
September 13th - October 11th, 2025
David Kordansky
Installation View @ the Gallery
5130 W. Edgewood Pl.
Opening: Saturday, September 13th | 6-10PM
(Via David Kordansky) Variously described by Fordjour as a “giant music box in the dark,” an “acoustic wilderness,” and “a conjuring,” Nightsong immerses viewers in an atmospheric sensorium whose aesthetic and thematic depictions trace Black musical history as it manifests, evolves, and travels through time and genre. While Fordjour has long drawn on music and theatricality in his two and three-dimensional artworks, Nightsong brings these subjects to exuberant life, as numerous vocalists perform an original, four-hour songcycle, composed exclusively for the exhibition, across a spatial, multi-room nightscape. The interactive, durational experience of the exhibition ensures that no two viewings will be exactly alike.
