Our (deep) listening sessions are back! Explore the themes in our current exhibition, Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses, through sound with the Philadelphia-based ambient music collective Spindrift.
Spindrift members DJ Papaya, Pontiac Streator, and Opheliaxz consider what is born out of the blurring of natural and artificial worlds through abstract sonic landscapes awash in texture. Aligning with Cheng’s interests in human interventions and collaboration with the natural environment, the sounds of the pond, the forest floor, melting ice, and cavernous echoes become digitally warped and intertwined with disembodied pop vocals and dubbed-out bass. Collectively, their music evokes the ephemerality of both natural life and digital information, inviting us to consider the tension between technology and our precarious ecosystems.
The performances will take place in an immersive, entrancing lounge space in ICA’s auditorium, including projections commissioned by Spindrift collaborator Yōsuke Araki to invite a spirit of togetherness, relaxation, and reflection. Visitors will also be able to visit the exhibition during special late hours (6 to 9 pm) while still enjoying live music from the event.
***Seating in our auditorium space is first come, first served. Once we reach capacity, visitors are welcome to browse our galleries during the extended hours.
Registration
Register to attend this free event here.
Accessibility
ICA is committed to creating a welcoming environment for all visitors. For more notes on accessibility including accessible parking nearby visit our Accessibility landing page. If you require any accessibility accommodations or have any questions about the program, please contact Brittany Clottey (bclottey@ica.upenn.edu).
About Spindrift
Founded in 2023 by Pontiac Streator, DJ Papaya, and Opheliaxz, Spindrift is an electronic music series highlighting artists from Philadelphia and beyond who work across a broad array of sounds from ambient, experimental, and downtempo to IDM, dub, and dream pop. The events incorporate visual projections and temporary spatial installations to create immersive and open-ended environments tailored to electronic music that operates outside the traditional club context. Spindrift’s bookings draw largely from an online and IRL network of friends and collaborators, loosely centered around labels such as 3XL, Motion Ward, and West Mineral that have fostered a spirit of playful exchange and artistic cross-pollination.
About the musicians
DJ Papaya is a Philadelphia-based DJ, whose eclectic approach to mixing draws upon downtempo, ambient, leftfield electronics, and bass music to craft surreal and emotionally complex narratives, rich in texture and rooted in the sensibilities of dub. They are a co-founder of the ambient/experimental electronic series Spindrift, with Pontiac Streator and Opheliaxz, as well as the bass music party Chrysalis, with Amylia, both of which pair artists from Philadelphia with beloved and genre-defying touring artists. DJ Papaya has hosted the monthly show Entanglement on Great Circles radio since 2022, and has contributed guest mixes to series such as 3XL, co:clear, Mitamine Lab, and many more.
Pontiac Streator exists as an audio file originator in Philadelphia. His slout works in various disk jockey programs. Contributor to famed labels: WEST MINERAL LTD > MOTION WARD > LILLERNE TAPES > 3XL. Co-conspirator of Philadelphia’s Spindrift party series.
Opheliaxz has captured the hearts and attention of many with her ethereal ambient, dubby, downtempo contributions to notable mix series including: 3 X L, NTS, Motion Ward [LA], down2earth [NYC], pi pi pi [NYC], Theory Therapy [Sydney, Australia], Animalia [Naarm, Melbourne], Living Room [Lisbon], vowel [Japan] and others. Opheliaxz’s sounds are well traveled and deeply felt. Connecting, guiding listeners globally, providing refuge, comfort, warmth and a sense of nostalgia with her free flowing arrangements. Opheliaxz released a collection of unreleased tracks from 2020 – 2022 with her “11/11” release on Bandcamp in April of 2023. This stunning debut release showcases her signature mystic and hazy electronic sounds through transmissions of ambient, dub, dub techno and dubstep elements. Late February 2024, Opheliaxz was interviewed by pi pi pi founder Deep Creep for a rapid movement Q&A interview for Mystical Radio segment via Nina Protocol. The interview also includes a new track premiered titled “Slow” available for stream/purchase on Nina as well as Bandcamp!
About the exhibition
Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is the first in-depth survey of Carl Cheng’s prescient, genre-defying work from the 1960s to the present that will transform both floors of the ICA. Cheng began his career in the experimental context of the Southern California art scene and the post-war aerospace industry, resulting in artworks that operate at the intersection of identity, technology, and ecology. Over the last six decades he has worked in a variety of media to reflect on environmental change, the relevance of art institutions to their publics, and the role of technology in society. Because the majority of Cheng’s oeuvre is still in his possession, the exhibition will be an exciting and rare opportunity to animate the arc of his career through a presentation of artworks that are multidisciplinary, ephemeral, material, process-based, and interactive. The exhibition will also be presented at The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center (September – December 2024), Bonnefanten (May – September 2025), and Museum Tinguely (December 2025 – May 2026). Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is curated by Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin, with assistance from Rachel Eboh, Curatorial Assistant, The Contemporary Austin. The exhibition is organized for ICA by Denise Ryner, Andrea B. Laporte Curator.
Support
Programming at ICA is made possible in part by the Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Lise Spiegel Wilks and Jeffrey Wilks Family Foundation. Public and Student Engagement at ICA is supported by the Bernstein Public Engagement Fund, Suzanne Weiss Doft & Jacob W. Doft, Stacey & Robert Goergen Jr., Hilarie L. & Mitchell Morgan, the Nash Family Foundation, Joline & David Stemerman, and by Dana McDonald Strong & Mark W. Strong.
Major support for Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, also by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Teiger Foundation, with sustainability efforts guided by Rute Collaborative as part of Teiger Foundation’s Climate Action Pilot. Additional support has been provided by Nancy & Leonard Amoroso, Barbara & Theodore Aronson, Dorothy & Martin Bandier, Carol & John Finley, Cheri & Steven Friedman, Marjorie & Michael Levine, Bryan & Meredith Verona, and Caroline & Daniel Werther.
