Afro-Sonic Mapping Chapter 4: Seeing a Creative Genius at Play
Community Reporter, Jessica Warby, offers an overview of Satch Hoyt’s solo exhibition at KARST Gallery.
October has brought us a new exhibition at KARST Gallery. Afro-Sonic Mapping Chapter 4 is a solo exhibition for London-born musician and artist, Satch Hoyt. There are only a few creative souls who can create something simultaneously disruptive and calming, but Hoyt has achieved all that to create an immersive work in which you can easily spend hours.
Score 1 & 2 (2020), Satch Hoyt
There is a hypnotic element to the sounds of the work, and the show as a whole has a sensually intense presence that radiates throughout. It makes you want to stay there for a long time to escape from the world, but Hoyt’s lyrics also make you consider the flawed world that we are trying to escape from.
The paintings are beautiful and clever even on their own. They have an unearthly landscape appearance to them, and the nods to music and the slave trade in the subtle symbols within the paintings add a clever, thoughtful touch. The layers of texture and colour make them comparatively absorbing as the sound work. These colours, textures, and subtle symbols complement the sounds that draw them harmoniously together to create this immersive, hypnotic work. The naturalistic, brown and fibrous backdrop to the exhibition shows the thought and love that has gone into transporting you from the streets of Plymouth into Hoyt’s work.
On Galactic Paths of More Tomorrows (2017) Satch Hoyt
At the private view, we were treated to a performance from Hoyt. It is rare to see a genius at work, but the attendees at KARST Gallery experienced it that night. Time stopped, and we were absorbed into the world of colour and sound that Hoyt forges into existence. His musical skills were demonstrated here as the plethora of instruments, varying from rudimentary to traditional to electronic, were used to create Hoyt’s Afro-Sonic Mapping. Hoyt’s lyrics are also a thing of beauty, and the most confronting element of the exhibition.
This work was originally a part of Nottingham Contemporary over the summer; all the work in the group exhibition focused on sound as an art form. Un-Muting Beyond Misspelt Borders, 2025 (Hoyt’s sound work) began with an hour-long session in the British Museum in which Hoyt, who descends from British and African-Jamaican ancestry, played instruments from their collection that had been silenced for years. Re-worked alongside instruments in Hoyt’s collection, along with his lyrics, these instruments have been re-awakened into this work. Hoyt typifies this as an act of sonic restitution. Although these instruments may not have returned to their country of origin, there is beauty in the fact that their sound waves can travel there.
The paintings and sound of Hoyt’s work ensnare the viewer in the space. It is really worth carving out some time in your diary to allow yourself to be immersed in Hoyt’s sound, words, and paintings. There is almost a transformative feeling to the exhibition, and you have to feel it to believe it, but you come out feeling lighter and wiser. Truly sensational work.
The show is on until the 29th November 2025. KARST Gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday from (11:00-17:00)
Curator’s Tours will be on 10th October and 14th November 2025 (13:00–14:00).
