Drumming constitutes the focal point around which everything orbits in Julian Abraham “Togar”’s practice. It is an elemental way for him to connect with all living matter, shaping his understanding of life through rhythm. Throughout history, the drum has continuously transformed, yet its essence remains constant—connecting communities across time, bridging the analogue with the electronic, and transcending cultures and geographies.

Drummer’s Gonna Drum grows from this fascination. In this ongoing video series, the artist visits natural and built environments, rhythmically drumming on seemingly ordinary surfaces and transforming them into percussion instruments. Sound and rhythm function as both research tools and artistic language, uncovering hidden relationships, activating historical memory, and fostering dialogue across geographies.

Following Drummer’s Gonna Drum #03, filmed on the Indonesian island of Run, Drummer’s Gonna Drum #04 shifts to Manhattan. Together, the two works connect sites historically entangled through colonial trade. In 1667, the Treaty of Breda formalised Great Britain’s exchange of the island of Run—then central to the nutmeg trade—for Dutch-controlled Manhattan. Through the act of drumming, “Togar” summons the memories embedded within these places. The resulting vibrations testify to the afterlives of colonialism and commemorate the violent extraction of people, resources, and power across Indonesia, the Netherlands, and New York. Installed back-to-back, the two videos collapse the distance between them. The surrounding screenprints evoke protest slogans and placards, turning language into something to be shouted, chanted, and enacted through sound and rhythm.