What u hear is not a test
2016-2023
Sound collage (audio recording, mp3) with black and white photographs. Running time 3:58
Proposal
What u hear is not a test is a sound collage comprising of an audio clip from the Blaxploitation film Trick Baby (1972), with field recordings of a duplex demolition, a new house under construction, and the war zone-like booms and pops of celebratory fireworks on the Fourth of July in 2016. It ends with a short conversation of two residents passing by as the artist documented a demolished home, followed by 29 seconds of silence. It is meant to be experienced with headphones. The field recordings and photographs act as a documentation of the transformation and erasure of a historically Black neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina where the artist grew up and currently lives. Gray is a witness to the continuous displacement of people who are evicted or bought out by real estate developers who see dollar signs in the hood. Gentrification will not be televised.
Biography
André Leon Gray, Born/lives and works in Raleigh, NC. Leon Gray is a multi-disciplinary, self-trained artist. His work is in the permanent collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC and the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA.