Autophysiopsychopoetic, Chicago

Public Art —

“Autophysiopsychopoetic” is a work by Suchi Reddy currently on display as part of Norman Teague’s “A Love Supreme” at the Elmhurst Art Museum in Chicago. This collaborative showing, part of Art Design Chicago 2024, is co-curated by Norman Teague and Rose Camara and reimagines Mies van der Rohe’s 1952 McCormick House through the inspirational lens of John Coltrane’s legacy.

“A Love Supreme” was an epiphany, a brainstorm, and a revelation. It made me understand music as a synthesis of vibrational movement through time, in space, to generate emotion: much like architecture. The ethos of my practice, distilled into the mantra “form follows feeling“ was influenced by Coltrane’s mastery. My personal ritual, for decades, has been to start my Sundays “A Love Supreme.”

“Autophysiopsychopoetic” is an exploration of spirituality as a three-dimensional vibration, and a play on the word “autophysiopsychic,” coined by Yusuf Lateef aka Bill Evans, Coltrane’s long term friend and collaborator. He received a gift from John Coltrane on the occasion of his birthday, which was a drawing of the mathematics of music, the circle of fifths, with Coltrane’s own innovations reflected. Its form relates closely to the “voiceprints” created by chanting Sanskrit mantras which are designed as powerful vibrational fields of sound. This confluence between my spiritual heritage and Coltrane’s focus on spirituality, particularly in “A Love Supreme,” continues to fascinate me and lead me to exploring the philosophy of oneness that might underlie our realities.

The work was exposed in ‘A Love Supreme: McCormick House Reimagined,’ from Jan 20 to April 28, 2024.