Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Music/Sound 2024

Yulan Grant

Yulan Grant sits straddling the back of a wood chair in front of a pair of white wooden doors. Behind them, leaning against the door on the right are three large red bird of paradise flowers. They look directly at the camera, body facing forwards, with heels resting on the lower bars of the chair. Their right arm is in front of them hanging over the chair, while their left arm is crossed in front of them, resting on the back of the chair. They are wearing a black bomber jacket over a brightly colored, patterned shirt, orange pants with zippers on the cuffs, black shoes, and gold rimmed eyeglasses.
Photo by Sarah Muehlbauer.
  • 2024 Grants to Artists
  • Music/Sound
  • Multidisciplinary Artist, Researcher
  • Born 1993, Kingston, Jamaica
  • Lives in Brooklyn, NY
  • She/Her, They/Them
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  • Additional Information
  • yulangrant.com

Artist Statement

Yulan Grant, aka SHYBOI, is a New York based multi-disciplinary artist, sonic excavator, and researcher from Kingston, Jamaica. As a creative positioned between Caribbean and American culture, their work interrogates ideas of identity, notions of power, perceived histories, and the entanglements that happen within these topics. Blending ethnographic research, sound, and experimental conceptual frameworks, Grant is interested in the role that new media plays in artistic practices and the dialogue they hope to create.

- January 2024

Biography

Yulan Grant is an artist working across disciplines who draws on their experience as both a researcher and an artist to create work that questions our inherent ideas of the world. Frequently involving collaboration with other artists, their work investigates how different artistic perspectives can come together to create something new. 

Buss Demon Choat (2019) was commissioned by The Shed, New York, NY as part of their Open Call program. This site-specific installation focused on cultural anxiety and societal distrust. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s remark, “I fear I may have integrated my people into a burning house,” the performance used floor microphones to incorporate the sounds of the performing dancers with previously recorded sounds, which were accompanied by a live improvised set by Grant. These sounds and motions occurred simultaneously and in cycles of repetition. 

Grant’s other works include What Moses (2023) in collaboration with S*an D Henry Smith and Taja Cheek at 47 Canal, New York, NY; participation in the 2022 Warm Up series at MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Frequency (2022) in collaboration with Justin Allen and Ian Askew at The Chocolate Factory, New York, NY; Grip (2022) at Center for Collaborative Arts and Media at Yale University, New Haven, CT; Dub Bath (2019) at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; Basilica Soundscape : Triptych (2018), Hudson, NY; the 2016 Study Sessions series at Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; Guzzum Power (2015) at Fridman Gallery, New York, NY; and We Been Here : Cataclysm (2015) at MoMA PS1, New York, NY. 

Grant was a recipient of the Fellowship for Technology and Social Change (2021-2023) at Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, MA—their work focused on the corruption of information in both physical and digital spaces, and on the impact of rumors and myths within diaspora communities. They have also been awarded the Queer|Art|Prize for Recent Work (2020) and Pioneer Works Visual Arts Residency (2020).

BUSS DEMON CHOAT at The Shed, New York, 2019. Performers: Nic Kay, Destiny Brundridge, and Aarron Ricks.

DIS/PLACE at The Kitchen, New York, 2018.

Guzzum Power at Fridman Gallery, New York, 2016.

Yulan Grant performs on a foggy stage, backlit by orange light. They stand behind a podium with a soundboard, dressed in a white du-rag and white button up shirt.

Performance still from Buss Demon Choat, 2019, performed as part of Open Call: Group 1 at The Shed, New York, 2019. Photo by Christopher Garcia Valle.

Two performers dance on a foggy stage, backlit by orange light. They stand facing each other, the dancer on the right arching backwards and the dancer on the left leaning over them as they do so.

Performance still from Buss Demon Choat, 2019, performed as part of Open Call: Group 1 at The Shed, New York, 2019. Photo by Christopher Garcia Valle.

Three performers dance on a dark foggy stage, backlit by orange light. Two dancers careen as they embrace each other on the left side of the frame. The third stands straight in profile, facing them.

Performance still from Buss Demon Choat, 2019, performed as part of Open Call: Group 1 at The Shed, New York, 2019. Performers: Nic Kay, Destiny Bundridge, and Aarron Ricks. Photo by Christopher Garcia Valle.

Yulan Grant performs on a stage within a metal frame, lit by blue and red light. The are standing in profile facing the right, adjusting the dials on a sound board in front of them. They wear black headphones over their ears, eyeglasses, a white durag, and a white button up shirt.

Performance still from Buss Demon Choat, 2019, performed as part of Open Call: Group 1 at The Shed, New York, 2019. Photo by Christopher Garcia Valle.

Three performers dance on a dark stage, lit with orange ambient light. They lay on their backs with their heads pointing towards the camera, arms spread, and legs folded under them. In the far background, Yulan Grant stands at a soundboard.

Performance still from Buss Demon Choat, 2019, performed as part of Open Call: Group 1 at The Shed, New York, 2019. Performers: Nic Kay, Destiny Bundridge, and Aarron Ricks. Photo by Christopher Garcia Valle.