LA Timpa
I Got A New Joint: What I Should’nt Do With The Money

Opening, 4 July, 6 pm
Performances, 5 July, 5 am & 7 pm

I Got A New Joint: What I Should’nt Do With The Money is an exhibition by musician and artist LA Timpa centred around five sound pieces.

In a conversation, LA Timpa describes how he was sitting on a bench when several things happened at once that resulted in a unique compositional moment: an announcement not quite distinct in the school yard behind him, birds taking flight, a freight train unloading. Returning the next day in the hope of coincidently reliving something similar, he found the kids were gone, school out.

I Got A New Joint: What I Should’nt Do With The Money comprises a new body of work of charged materials. Beginning with writing, with words like "soaking in a sandbag, field of comma, blood bath" and collecting objects such as an oil lamp, kite string, a transport crate for rabbits, cassette players and Super 8 film, LA Timpa gradually moulds a world of imagery and sounds that tunes into moments grounded in the, specifically his, physical world: wilderness breaking through in urban environments and inhabiting unlikely spots. Rural tools from farming, structures of constraint and control, of regulation as well as of nurture.

In an installation that includes drawings, animation, sculptural elements, a novella and sound, LA Timpa traces where spirit manifests and transfers onto objects, surroundings and situations. To record these traces, LA Timpa gravitates toward "old" devices and technologies. He does not consider them obsolete, which would mean perpetuating the strange psychosis of renewal and the new, along with the collateral waste; he chooses them because they are recalcitrant to work with. Stubborn in their form, they require sculptural handling and function cut-and-dry, counter to the smooth and speedy options when working with sound available on the market today. As tools they demand intentionality, but they are also more susceptible to circumstance. Tapping into and connecting with the rawness of what he sees and hears around him, LA Timpa gauges visual and audio ratios in drawing out the noise in it all. Animals occupying cities, weaving nests, winding strings. Instruments hollowed out to serve as resonating bodies that he calls "tombs". Heartbeat. Absence. The flickering of light and screens, shadows moving.

LA Timpa is a Nigerian-born Canadian songwriter, singer, musician, producer and visual artist based in New York. He has released five albums, most recently IOX via avant-garde music pioneer Lolina's label, Relaxin Records. Previous albums are Time of Marcker (2024), Pity by One All Good Treasure (2022), Modern Antics In A Deserted Place (2020), Equal Amounts Afraid (2019) and Animal (2016), put out with O_o?, Vulgarteen, Halcyon Veil and Slow Release. He has worked with Space Afrika, Tricky, Lol K, Klein and Kathryn Tompkins and is a regular contributor at Café Oto, London, NTS and Rinse FM. LA Timpa blends pop, dub, ambient and experimental electronics. His compositions explore themes of introspection and the psychological dimensions of exile and estrangement and they engage with spirituality in fragmented melodies and vocals. As in Sands, 2023, a 27-hour performance, LA Timpa is interested in breaking with the conventional duration of performances and pushing them into an extreme, often physical realm related to rituals.

For his show at Kunsthalle Winterthur, LA Timpa is collaborating with performer Rob Gordon on the sound pieces. Kaivalya Brewerton is writing the exhibition text. The opening is on July 4th, 6 – 9pm. The following day, on July 5th, LA Timpa will hold two invocations at 5 am and 7 pm. Both events are free of charge. A concert by LA Timpa will take place on July 17th; ticket availability and venue details will be announced at a later date.

Thanks to Spike Fern, Kaivalya Brewerton, Marc Jauss.