July 16, 2022///

Vol 2.2 – FATIGUE

Donor Preview July 22, 2022 4pm - 7pm

On View July 23 – September 27, 2022

By appointment only.

Email tnm@conceptualfade.com to schedule a Viewing + Study Session.

The fourth show at [ Cf. ] features L’Rain’s second studio album Fatigue, 2021. As Taja shares on her website, “Fatigue puts out slippery sonics that Cheek describes as “approaching songness.: which highlights L’Rain’s commitment to the experimental value of process as her practice. Heavily blending genres (thus making new unnamable space for herself) including but not limited to gospel, jazz, and neo-soul, Fatigue fractures and mends our expectations of what musicians, especially Black women musicians, are categorized to do versus what they need to do (and actually do).”

Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band. L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls "approaching songness". Her self-titled debut, L'Rain, was included in best-of-year lists by several publications. Fatigue, was released on Mexican Summer in 2021. The album met with wide acclaim, with positive reviews from outlets including Pitchfork and NPR. Cheek provides vocals and plays guitar, bass, synth, keyboards, piano, percussion, tape effects, and airhorn on the album, which also features an expanded roster of twenty collaborators.

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The first time I heard Fatigue, I was driving in New Orleans on one of many trips filming my family, who is spread across the Delta. By the time I got to the track Blame Me, I had to pull over because I could barely see through my tears. I was blown over with emotion, having lost so much and so many people that I knew in the pandemic but also sheer joy from realizing that Taja had done such beautiful work with this album.

I have randomly seen Taja around NYC whenever I have been in town for the better part of a decade. We’ve passed each other in the subway while leaving events, and at random secret bars in the LES. She is what one would consider a true New Yorker, always moving about with ease, head high, and with immense intention.

Many of us in the arts who have worked in NY know Taja as a supreme curator of music. She has provided deeply considered cultural insight on performance across a range of forms and made space for many artists who work with sound-based practices that are difficult primarily because of their ephemerality. She has taken care of these artists, and contextualized and made space in venues across the city of NYC while maintaining her own musical practice. Now, touring with her band in support of her album Fatigue, she has fully stepped forward as a full-time musician.

I saw L’Rain in Philadelphia at Union Transfer opening for the band Animal Collective. I went to see her band play with a clear plan to exit right after. I stood near the back of the room, listened, and watched her perform the track Blame Me alongside her band with such severe and powerful grace that I again found myself in tears. I texted her that evening and emailed about the possibility of a show shortly after.

For this exhibition, there is the centering of sound as citational material. Vinyl has been shared directly from Taja’s personal collection that features her influences and peers from whom she has collaborated and found inspiration. A record player is centered in the space for visitors to play each record as they choose. Music videos from Fatigue have been placed in the gallery and screening room. There will also be a selection of publications sourced from the [ Cf. ] NFS Library arranged to highlight themes that relate to ideas exploring concepts of Black sound, grief, and music.

Fatigue is a vulnerable work that landed at a moment when I needed to grieve. The songwriting, musicianship, and arrangements are phenomenally rendered. I was in awe of Taja’s talent as I listened to her live concert as she truly became L’Rain, another dimension of the person that I have admired for many years who has often worked tirelessly behind the scenes for so many of us.

I hope that you all continue to enjoy the space that [ Cf. ] offers. This month [ Cf. ] will debut the first in a new podcast series featuring Ladi’Sasha Jones and her Black Spatial Thought project and exhibition. With this new podcast, I hope it is a way to listen in on a conversation between myself and artists who are rigorous in their practices in an entertaining and informative way.

X Tiona Nekkia McClodden

Founder + Director

[ Cf. ] Conceptual Fade