Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death

E-WERK will present Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death (2016) by internationally acclaimed artist Arthur Jafa in its 360m2 Turbine Hall. The work consists of footage shot by Jafa, a visual artist with a long career as a cinematographer and film director, as well as clips sampled from films, newscasts, sporting events, music videos, and citizen videos, much of it downloaded from the Internet. These images traverse the twentieth century, focusing on the lives of Bipoc people set against the backdrop of systemic racism and white supremacism. Jafa’s work is a seven-minute video made up of clips collaged from original and found footage. Distressing scenes of historic and contemporary violence inflicted on Black Americans by individuals and institutions are woven with scenes of religious ecstasy, athletic prowess, poetic and musical performance – what Jafa has called ‘a Black display of Black excellence.’