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.
![](http://aimbiennial.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/NN-Andre-Leon-Gray-Looking-through-the-front-door-at-the-future-Andre-Gray1-scaled.jpg)
![](http://aimbiennial.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/NN_QR-Code-for-AIM-BIENNIAL-2023-Andre-Gray-copy.png)
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.