Timeline of Mendi + Keith Obadike’s Works (1996–2025)
1996
Collaboration Begins — Mendi and Keith Obadike begin working together on conceptual internet art and sound projects, experimenting with animated gifs, hypertext, and sonic gestures. Drawing inspiration from 1970s media art, 1980s Black British art, and “downtown” New York performance, they set out to create sound art, new media operas and artworks specifically for the internet, seeing the net as a public space.
1997
They refine their collaborative practice, focusing on narrative and musical integration online. No major public projects this year, but groundwork is laid for future work.
They meet painter Raymond Saunders, a family friend. Saunders inspires their work Automatic.
They also meet musician James Brown at a movie theater in Augusta, GA. This encounter with James Brown inspires their sound work Sexmachines.
They develop the idea of “acousmatic Blackness”, the sensing or “reading” of a sound as “Black” even when the source of the sound is not visible.
1998
The Uli Suite – A sound piece inspired by Igbo uli painting, built from crowdsourced “everyday sounds” collected via email. Conceived for CD and installation, it sought to “aurally render” uli’s flowing lines and dotted patterns.
During travel in Ghana, they meet musician Koo Nimo and painter Atta Kwami, and conduct artist interviews. Record their first African city soundscape work in Accra.
1999
International Group Show – An excerpt of The Uli Suite appears in Sonik, an online exhibition by Artnode Foundation and the Danish Film Institute. This marks their first international exhibition.
2000
My Hands/Wishful Thinking – A web memorial responding to the police killing of Amadou Diallo. Later exhibited in Race in Digital Space (2001).
They also show in Infos 2000 (Ljubljana) and Transmissions (Chapel Hill).
They begin to talk about “social filters” mirroring filtering in digital and analog circuitry. It leads to a new body of work.
2001
Blackness for Sale – Keith attempts to auction his “Blackness” on eBay as part of their Black.Net.Art Actions. Removed after four days, the project sparked widespread debate on race and technology online.
Exhibitions – My Hands/Wishful Thinking is included in Race in Digital Space (MIT List). Mendi debuts Keeping Up Appearances, a minimalist hypertext and the first Black feminist net.art work.
2002
The Sour Thunder – An “Internet opera” commissioned by Yale Cabaret, combining music, hypertext, and contributions from artists like Coco Fusco and DJ Spooky. Presented online and later broadcast on radio. For the production at Yale,artist Torkwase Dyson designs the set, painter Iona Rozeal Brown designs scent for the work and actor Peter Macon performs in the piece.
The Interaction of Coloreds – Commissioned by the Whitney Museum’s ArtPort, exploring race and online interaction and what M + K call “social filters”.. The piece riffs on Josef Albers’ book The Interaction of Color.
2003
The Pink of Stealth – An internet/DVD surround-sound work commissioned by the New York African Film Festival and Electronic Arts Intermix.
Theater & Poetry – Keith designs sound for Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s The Mystery Plays, winning a Connecticut Critics Circle Award for sound design. Mendi’s poetry is featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Armor and Flesh — Mendi’s debut poetry collection received the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize. Celebrated poet Elizabeth Alexander praised the work, noting: “Mendi Obadike pares her poems down to the stark, dark places where self and selves unfurl, confront, and recombine. She understands the art of distillation, both formal and emotional. Yet there is nothing reserved in these rich poems, which emanate from a deep understanding of unsentimental, polyphonic human complexity.”
2004
Armor and Flesh (Book) – Published by Lotus Press, expanding Mendi’s recognition as a poet.
The Sour Thunder (CD) – Released on Bridge Records.
Rockefeller Fellowship – Supports development of TaRonda Who Wore White Gloves, an interdisciplinary installation and musical work.
Curation – Co-curate Ya Heard: Sounds from the ArtBase for Rhizome/New Museum.
Mendi + Keith meet writer Toni Morrison through composer Paul Lansky.
2005
Four Electric Ghosts (Development) – Workshopped at Princeton’s Atelier (founded by Toni Morrison). The piece fuses Amos Tutuola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with Pac-Man mythology.
Exhibitions – Included in Only Skin Deep (San Diego/London), Transmission (New Museum, NY), and Arte Nuevo InteractivA ’05 (Mexico).
Commissions – Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, for Back to Black exhibition.
2006
Mendi + Keith attend the funeral of Nam June Paik.
Internet Ikenga – Installed at Eyebeam (AFRICA WIRED). A remix of Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha, but with an Igbo Ikenga symbol of networked agency. Later deinstalled due to technical issues at Eyebeam’s facility.
2007
Big House / Disclosure – 200-hour sound installation at Northwestern, curated by Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson. Engaged themes of slavery, ancestry, architecture and music.
Residency – Selected as fellows at USC’s Annenberg Center (Vectors New Media).
2008
Crosstalk: American Speech Music – Compilation CD (Bridge Records) includes artists like pianist Vijay Iyer, poetTracie Morris and artist Lawrence Weiner with composer Peter Gordon.
Sound Unbound – Contribution to MIT Press anthology edited by DJ Spooky.
Commission – Begin a project with The Kitchen (NYC), developing Four Electric Ghosts.
2009
Four Electric Ghosts (Premiere) – Debuts at The Kitchen. A genre-blending “opera-masquerade” combining Afrofuturist storytelling, live music, and masquerade-inspired contemporary dance. Acclaimed for its mix of folklore, video games, and 80’s styled avant-art-pop music.
Later performed at UNC Chapel Hill (2012) and published as a libretto (1913 Press, 2014).
Four Electric Ghosts listed in Artforum’s Best of the Year
2010
Project Row Houses – Residency in Houston’s Third Ward.
NYFA Fellowship – Mendi receives a fellowship in Fiction.
Performances – Appear at The Stone and Roulette (NYC).
2011
Performa ’11 – Perform in Iona Rozeal Brown’s The Battle of Yestermore. Also appear in Varispeed’s restaging of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives.
African Metropole – Receive Rhizome Commission to develop African Metropole: Sonic City Lagos. The project links to Mendi + Keith’s late 90s Accra, Ghana soundscape.
Other Projects – Publish Big House/Disclosure (book of graphic scores); begin field recordings at Monticello.
2012
African Metropole: Sonic City Lagos – Premieres at Ramapo College’s Pascal Gallery, co-commissioned with Rhizome. A multisensory installation engaging Lagos through directional speakers projecting street sounds and industrial noise.
Stereo Helix for Sally Hemings – First shown at Bucknell University’s Samek Art Museum, part of their developing American Cypher project, using an antique bell once belonging to Hemings as a sound source.
2013
American Cypher (Studio Museum Harlem) – Installation of the series exploring race, DNA, and American history.
ALBEDO (for Angela Davis) – Commissioned by the American Studies Association. Recognition – Finalists for the 2013 Alpert Award in the Arts (Music).
2014
American Cypher (INOVA, Milwaukee) – Full exhibition of the project, including Stereo Helix for Sally Hemings and letterpress texts.
Four Electric Ghosts (Publication) – Libretto published by 1913 Press.
Free/Phase Commission – Commissioned by Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Black Music Research for a major public sound project.
2015
Free/Phase (Chicago) – Three-part intermedia installation remixing freedom songs, jointly presented by Chicago Cultural Center and Rebuild Foundation.
Blues Speaker [for James Baldwin] – 12-hour installation at The New School, turning the building into a giant speaker. Commissioned by Harlem Stage and Vera List Center.
2016
Sonic Migration (Philadelphia) – A two-part installation commissioned by Scribe Video Center, using Tindley Temple Church as subject and instrument, reflecting on the Great Migration.
Ring Shout (for Octavia Butler) – A four-channel installation based on Butler’s unpublished story, part of Clockshop’s Radio Imagination.
Major Exhibitions – Electronic Superhighway (2016–1966) at Whitechapel, London, includes their Black.Net.Art Actions.
Awards – Receive the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award.
Other Works – Fit (The Battle of Jericho) at the Met Breuer.
2017
Overcome – Solo show at Drake University’s Anderson Gallery. Installation derived from Free/Phase, featuring vibrations recorded at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Compass Song (Times Square) – Location-aware app commissioned by Times Square Arts, transforming walks into a sonic journey.
Other Works – Anyanwu installation at Carnegie Mellon; Re: Construction (for Raymon Dones) at Wheaton College.
2018
Utopias: Seeking for a City – 16-channel installation for Weeksville Heritage Center, exploring the trajectories of historic free Black towns.
Major Exhibitions – Included in Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 (Whitney Museum) and I Was Raised on the Internet (MCA Chicago).
Numbers Station Series – Performed at Refiguring the Future (NYC.
Lull (in development) – Overnight “sleep temple” musical work.
2019
Anyanwu / Book of Light (Carnegie Mellon) – Large-scale installation of sound and printed fabric banners; light-and-sound projection on CMU’s Fine Arts building.
In the Mouth of This Dragon – Commissioned by Vera List Center, . Explores of censorship.
2020
Lull (A Sleep Temple) – Eight-hour overnight composition designed for rest.
The Sun (Sound-Film) – 43-minute film inspired by Egyptian Hymn to Aten and Igbo proverbs; reflects on protest, visibility, and power.
Release- How To Listen During a Pandemic (ebook)
2021
Lift – Commissioned by Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts & Media/Artspace. Inspired by the history of aerial photography and the African-American anthem Lift Every Voice and SIng.
Timbre and Frequency – Outdoor sound pieces commissioned by Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. Timbre and Frequency use language from writers Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison. These are the first works in the tonotype series.
2022
Difference Machines –early internet artwork in the group show at Albright-Know/Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
Lift @ Carnegie Hall – Part of Carnegie’s Afrofuturism Festival, presented with public dialogue.
Harmonies (Cornell) – Site-specific sound installation inspired by 19th century writer Anna Julia Cooper.
Academic Milestone – Keith becomes the first African-American full professor in Cornell’s Department of Art.
2023
Mendi at Cornell – Joins as full professor in Performing & Media Arts.
SlowDrag (Counterpublic Triennial, St. Louis) – Car procession sound installation engaging community and blues traditions.
DreamTrain (ACO) – Multimedia composition for American Composers Orchestra, exploring trains as symbols of freedom and the afterlife.
2024
The Sun (George Mason University) – Screening with dialogue.
Lift (Toronto) – Screened at University of Toronto’s Centre for Culture and Technology.
Wa Na Wari Commission (Seattle) – Begin new public art project engaging the Central District community, slated for 2025.
2025
The Skeuomorph – Exhibited at Qualcomm Institute’s Gallery QI (UC San Diego) and in the group show Code Switch at MOCAD Detroit. Combines AI, sound, prints, and sculpture.
GuideStar - a new public artwork developed with Wa Na Wari for the city of Seattle debuts at the iconic Space Needle.
Love Is Listening - Mendi + Keith’s new public listening work was commissioned by Creative Time. It was presented at Creative Time’s HQ with DJs Reena Anakwe and chukwumaa.
Mendi + Keith’s sonic procession SlowDrag is presented in Philadelphia.