Antoine’s Organ (2016) is a monumental, immersive multimedia installation by contemporary artist Rashid Johnson, on view as a part of his career-spanning exhibition, A Poem for Deep Thinkers. Serving as a metaphor for the artist’s own brain, the artwork explores complex themes of race, class, yearning, Afrocentric identity, and the subversion of cultural containment.

Named after the classically trained pianist and music producer Antoine Baldwin (also known as Audio BLK), who originally activated the work in its 2016 debut, a piano is hidden at the center of the labyrinthine structure. Throughout the exhibition’s run, musicians perform live improvisations from within the structure. Music floats through the foliage, giving life and cohering community through shared narrative.

Due to limited capacity, we encourage guests to cycle through the gallery during the performance.

About the Performer

Angel Bat Dawid (she, her, hers) is a Chicago-based composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, vocalist, DJ, and recording engineer with more than 35 years of professional experience. A 2025 United States Artist Fellow and current Artist in Residence at Northwestern University’s Black Arts Consortium, Dawid is recognized as an Afrofuturist artist. Her practice utilizes speculative aesthetics and technology to bridge historical scholarship with contemporary production, documenting and advancing Black musical lineages. As a classical composer and conductor, Dawid specializes in large-scale works utilizing formal orchestration. Her 14-movement composition, The Souls of Black Folk Suite, premiered at the Harris Theater in 2026. This followed Blk Metropolis Apocalypse, a work commissioned by the string ensemble D-Composed and premiered at Theaster Gates’s Land School. Her expertise as a conductor is rooted in spontaneous composition, directing ensembles through complex arrangements that merge formal scores with improvisational rigor.

Dawid’s technical proficiency in recording engineering and scoring is central to her work. She composed for Season 2 of Terence Nance’s HBO series, Random Acts of Flyness, and has scored for Adidas, independent films, and festivals. Her debut album, The Oracle—which she produced, performed, and engineered entirely herself—was released via International Anthem Recording Company to critical acclaim from NPR, The Guardian, and DownBeat. She also produced and mixed the collaborative album Journey to Nabta Playa with interdisciplinary artist Naima Nefertari on Spiritmuse Records. Her collaborative credits include André 3000, Moor Mother, Lonnie Holley, Saul Williams, and Shabaka Hutchings; she has also maintained a five-year residency on NTS Radio dedicated to Black music documentation. An established global performer, Dawid’s international tours have reached Europe, Japan, Brazil, and South Africa. Her history includes performances at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Newport, and Montreal International Jazz Festivals, with a 2026 premiere at the Western Front Art Centre in Vancouver, BC.