Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016) is, essentially, a music video. Currently on show at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane, it is also one of only a handful of video works in the world that could be called a masterpiece with a straight face.
Set to the booming rhythms of Kanye West’s Ultralight Beam (2016), Jafa’s work is seven-and-a-half-minutes of impeccably edited montages, most appropriated from the internet.
Black bodies in the turmoils and exultations of American life are shown striving, shuddering, dancing, fleeing, falling and in moments of reclaimed grace. Subtle repetitions – such as alien movie excerpts, police officers abusing their authority, the blistering surface of the sun – function as through-lines, grounding it in unconventional thematic registers.
Jafa elevates the music video while emulating the tenor of sports brand advertising. Sequences alternate between the prosaic and the universal; political reality and spirituality.
Details
Title
The video art of Arthur Jafa: a counterpunch to anyone who wants to put people of colour in their place
Creators
Wes Hill - Southern Cross University, Creative Arts
Publication Details
The Conversation
Publisher
The Conversation Media Group Ltd
Identifiers
991013180412902368
Academic Unit
Faculty of Business, Law and Arts; Creative Arts
Language
English
Resource Type
Magazine article
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The video art of Arthur Jafa: a counterpunch to anyone who wants to put people of colour in their place