Burnaway

Samantha Oleschuk () reviews Dynai White Hawk’s () LISTEN, an eight-channel video installation that asks a deceptively simple question: “How many languages can you identify by sound?”

“Approaching a screen brings its speaker and their voice into focus; step away, and the language dissolves again into a distant murmur. The installation makes the body part of the listening process. To hear, one must choose to move closer.”

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1. Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, “LISTEN” (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires. 2. Installation view, “Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Images courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. 3. Installation view, “Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Images courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Philip Kelleher-Rios reviews the collaborative, embodied qualities of Raheleh Filsoofi ()’s “Deep Listening” and Raheleh Filsoofi and Reza Filsoofi ()’s “Listening: The Fourth String” at the Ismaili Center, Houston ().

“Perhaps most compellingly, the performance offered a balance between moments of harmony and dissonance. Sections of the music followed semi-regular structures—this was perhaps most notable when the music aligned with Reza’s vocals. Other sections were intentionally discordant—repetitions were abandoned and one after another new arrangements were delivered.”

Read more from the review at the link in bio!
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1. Raheleh Filsoofi, Reza Filsoofi, and Gabriel Martinez activate the “ShahTár” (شهتار) during their performance “Listening: The Fourth String,” Ismaili Center, April 11, 2026. Photography by Ali Khoja, courtesy of Ismaili Center. 2. Installation view of Raheleh Filsoofi and Reza Filsoofi’s “ShahTár” (شهتار), Ismaili Center, 2025-2026. Photograph by Ali Ahad Dhukka, courtesy of Ismaili Center. 3. Raheleh Filsoofi, Reza Filsoofi, and audience members performing during “Listening: The Fourth String” at the Ismaili Center’s black box theater, April 11, 2026. Photograph by Azhmeer Jesani, courtesy of Ismaili Center.

Natalie Willis Whylly () situates diaspora-based textile artist Gio Swaby’s () Black feminist portraiture in its original Bahamian context.

“Her portraiture, a self-proclaimed “love letter to Black women”, transmutes the weight of body politics, history, fabric, and lived experience, to become tender lines drawn through the eye of a needle.”

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1. Gio Swaby, “Hi-Vis 5” (2025), Gio Swaby, thread and fabric sewn on canvas, 28 x 24 x 1 in. Self-portrait of the artist. Photo credit: Jeff McLane. Image courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. 2. Installation view of Gio Swaby’s 2025 solo show, “How We Go”, at Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo credit: Jeff McLane. Image courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. 3. Gio Swaby, “As We Are: Ashante” (2025) thread and fabric sewn on canvas, 78 x 45 x 1.5 in. Photo credit: Jeff McLane. Image courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles.