ExhibitionsBirdsong Blues | Performance Exhibition

Performance Still, Ime Soul (fka Immanuel J.), Bird Song Blues, 2026

Performance Still, Ime Soul (fka Immanuel J.), Bird Song Blues, 2026

Performance Still, Ime Soul (fka Immanuel J.), Bird Song Blues, 2026

Gallery 495 is proud to present “Birdsong Blues,” a live original performance by Ime Soul (fka Immanuel J.) that uses language from phishing scams and algorithmic “hacks” as source material, creating a dizzying, disorienting jukebox concert. 

Using the format of Karaoke, Ime Soul screams and acts out text fed to them via a karaoke video of their making. Drawing from the distressing experience of watching loved ones spiral on social media and Blackness’ relationship to abjection, Ime Soul tests the audience’s capacity to watch someone struggle and endure. This work stands in relation to Christinna Sharpe’s work on the epigenetic effects of racial trauma and how it causes language to break down.

“I’ve really been pushing myself to move beyond language’s limits in meaning making through sound and movement. A formal break from the last two versions of this performance, I believe this edition may serve as an addendum to the previous chapters… Or perhaps it’s a final chapter, making this work a trilogy.” -Ime Soul