About the Artist
Arthur Jafa is an acclaimed filmmaker and artist based in New York. He is a crucial voice in a lineage of artists and filmmakers particularly concerned with the creation of a black aesthetics that liquid blackness has been studying since its inception in Fall 2013, when it co-hosted the L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black American Cinema film series with Emory’s Department of Film and Media Studies.
Since his groundbreaking work as the acclaimed cinematographer of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991), a film where he experimented with the possibility of instituting a specifically black aesthetic inspired by the cadence and the form of free jazz and black vocal intonation—what he calls a “black visual intonation”—Jafa has worked on Spike Lee’s Crooklyn (1994), John Akomfrah’s Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1995), Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), and Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014), among many others.
Concurrent with his filmmaking practice, Jafa has also worked as a conceptual artist. Turning more intensely towards installation practice, Jafa has been relentlessly researching the possibility of creating an authentically black visual aesthetics, which he models after the centrality of black music in American culture and life. Jafa is inspired in this quest by the way black musicians focused their collective genius toward operating within very specific constraints. Similarly, a black visual aesthetics for Jafa might become available when every technological, aesthetic, and methodological protocol used by dominant cinema is challenged and adapted to the specific socio-cultural conditions of American black life. Since the late 1990s, his work, research, and writing have focused on this possibility.
Jafa’s fine art practice has put his work in dialogue with acclaimed black artists and curators and some of the most prestigous art spaces in the world—his work was part of Okwui Enwezor’s Mirror’s Edge, which opened at the BildMusset, the University of Umeå in Sweden and traveled to the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; and Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland (1999). He has shown at Artists Space, New York (1999); Black Box, CCAC Institute, Oakland (2000); Media City, Seoul (2000); and at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2001). His work was included in Kara Walker’s exhibition Ruffneck Constructivists at the ICA Philadelphia and has been selected for the 2016 Made in L.A. Biennial at the Hammer Museum. In 2015, he presented APEX redacted, a public video installation for Flux Night in Atlanta.
Arthur Jafa Now – Salient Works, Interviews and Resources since 2016
It has now become commonplace to divide Arthur Jafa’s artistic career into a before and after Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016), in order to mark the extraordinary new visibility this world-famous installation has brought to his current and previous work. Yet this outcome has been a career-long labor and practice.
liquid blackness’s initial interest in Jafa was rooted in the study of his theories of black aesthetics that preceded, by roughly thirty years, the current visibility of his art practice and the ubiquity of his online interviews. We became particularly attentive to his concept of “Black Visual Intonation” because of the role that Larry Clark’s Passing Through (1977) had in originally inspiring it. We have continued to research the ways in which processes of music-making still act as models for black contemporary filmmaking’s pursuit of an increasing fluidity between experimental modes of film practice and the music video format. A straddling of the line between the art gallery and online spaces, and high art and popular culture.[1]
Second, we are invested in retrieving the work of the creative ensembles Jafa has been part of with formal and informal partners, such as TNEG partners Malik Sayeed and Elissa Blount Moorhead or Kahlil Joseph, among many others; with intellectual interlocutors such as Greg Tate, Fred Moten, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, and countless others; and with numerous visual artists, such as Ming Smith, Frida Orupabo, and Missylanyus (intergenerational artists all part of the show A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions), along with jazz musicians and performers such as Jason Moran, Steve Coleman, and Okwui Okpokwasili, to name just one instance in which Jafa “orchestrated” a performative/musical event as a deliberately “dismembered jazz ensemble.” Since Jafa’s visit in 2016, liquid blackness has continued to host artists that have been in more or less direct contact with what we have called the “Howard pedagogy lab,” i.e. the legacy of the mentorship of Haile Gerima at Howard University, such as Kahlil Joseph, Bradford Young, and Jenn Nkiru, and who have worked with/have been in conversation with Jafa in various capacities. More importantly, we know that for Jafa co-creation is a philosophical practice rooted in black sociality as he expresses in his email reply to Christina Sharpe’s reaction to a screening of Love is the Message, ahead of its official debut at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.[2]
Third, Jafa is arguably one of the most vocal and insistent proponents of an ontological approach to black aesthetics. Of the inseparability between questions of black beauty and black being—a stance he announced back in his 2003 essay “My Black Death,” which we explored in our issue of the liquid blackness journal dedicated to “Black Ontology and the Love of Blackness.”[3]
Finally, we are attentive to the ways the theoretical and critical concepts Jafa originated over the years—concepts such as “Black Visual Intonation,” the idea of black culture created in a “freefall,” the idea of “black potention,” which have been mobilized within an art practice that is specifically directed at black people while everybody else “gets to listen in”—have now become part of a popular critical vocabulary. Not only do they offer new ways to think about black expressive culture, but they also challenge processes of art world evaluation and appreciation, pitting them against the possibility for black artists to “self-authorize.” Reimagining the tension between tradition vs. innovation, appropriation vs. homage, singular vs. ensemblic authorship, and introducing new ways of thinking about the relationship between archives/collections/collectives.
This page does not attempt to be exhaustive; it only serves to collect Jafa’s main solo and group exhibitions; screenings/acquisitions of APEX, Dreams are Colder than Death, Love is the Message, the Message is Death; and his traveling show A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions and The White Album (winner of the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Bienniale). It will continue to be periodically updated.
[1] Alessandra Raengo and Lauren M. Cramer, eds., “In Focus: Music Video as Black Art,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 59 no. 2 (Winter 2020).
[2] Arthur Jafa and Elissa Blount Moorhead, “The Case for Nonsense,” Creative Time Summit, DC: Occupy The Future, October 14-16, 2016. http://creativetime.org/summit/dc-2016/
[3] Jafa, Arthur, “My Black Death,” in Everything but the burden: what white people are taking from Black culture, ed. Greg Tate (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), 245-257. burden: what white people are taking from Black culture, ed. Greg Tate (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), 245-257.
liquid blackness in Conversation with Arthur Jafa
SELECTED WORKS
Director
Kanye West’s Wash Us in the Blood (2020)
The White Album (2018)
Akingdoncomethas (2018)
JAY-Z 4:44 (as TNEG) (2017)
Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016)
New Soul Rebel Adrian Younge (as TNEG) (2015)
Sharifa Walks (as TNEG) (2015)
Dreams are Colder than Death (as TNEG) (2013)
APEX (2013)
Deshotten 1.0 (as TNEG) (2009)
Tree (1999)
Smile (1996)
Slowly This (1995)
Until by Isaach De Bankole and Cassandra Wilson (1995)
Considerations (1982)
Cinematography
Happy Birthday Marsha (2018), directors Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel
Cranes in the Sky (2017), directors Alan Ferguson and Solange
Don’t Touch My Hair (2017), directors Alan Ferguson and Solange
In the Morning (2014), dir. Nefertite Nguvu
Florida Water (2014), dir. Numa Perrier
Dreams Are Colder Than Death (2014)
Killing Me Softly: The Roberta Flack Story (2014), dir. Mike Connolly
Head and Hands: My Black Angel (2013), dir. Aïda Ruilova
Nine for IX – Venus vs. (2013), dir. Ava DuVernay
Independent Lens – Soul Food Junkies (2013), dir. Byron Hurt
The Start Up (2013)
Roomieloverfriends (2012), creators Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier
Shadows of Liberty (2012), dir. Jean-Philippe Tremblay
William Lynch: Bible Stories (2009), dir. Curtis Lilly
Meet the Eye (2009), dir. Aïda Ruilova
AfterLife (2007), dir. Lana Garland
Conakry Kas (2004), dir. Manthia Diawara
The Blues – Feel Like Going Home (2003)
Bamako Sigi-Kan (2003), dir. Manthia Diawara
I Am Ali (2002), dir. Dream Hampton
American Experience (1991—2001), creators Stephen Fitzmeyer and Henry Hampton
Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2001), dir. Stanley Nelson
The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry (1991), dir. Jackie Shearer
American Masters (1996), creator Susan Lacy
W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices (1996), dir. Louis J. Massiah
Rouch in Reverse (1995), dir. Manthia Diawara
A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995), directors Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson
Until by Isaach De Bankole and Cassandra Wilson (1995)
Crooklyn (1994), dir. Spike Lee
The Darker Side of Black (1994), dir. Isaac Julien
Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993), dir. John Akomfrah
Daughters of the Dust (1991), dir. Julie Dash
Producer
New Soul Rebel (2015), directors Arthur Jafa and Malik Hassan Sayeed
In the Morning (2014). dir. Nefertite Nguvu
Dreams are Colder than Death (2014)
William Lynch: Bible Stories (2009), dir. Curtis Lilly
Black America: Facing the Millennium (1997), dir. Juanita Anderson
Daughters of the Dust (1991), dir. Julie Dash
Other
Spirits of Rebellion: Black Film at UCLA (2001), appears as himself
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Flag Wars (2003), visual advisor
MAIN EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS
Love is the Message, the Message Is Death
For 48 hours (June 26-28), the film streamed online on the website of 13 art institutions around the world. The simulcast was organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Other participating institutions:
The Dallas Museum of Art
The Glenstone Museum
The High Museum of Art
The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
The Studio Museum in Harlem
The Tate
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Palazzo Grassi
The Punta della Dogana
The Julia Stoschek Collection
Luma Arles and Luma Westbau
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebæk, Denmark, November 19, 2020 – February 28, 2021
Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, January 3, 2020 – August 1, 2020
Elements of Vogue: Un Caso De Estudio De Performance Radical, [Museo Universitario Del Chopo], November 15, 2019 – March 7, 2020
“The Hidden Pulse in collaboration with M+, Love is the Message, the Message is Death,” Screening, The Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, May 30, 2019
Palazzo Madama, Turin, Italy, March 11, 2019
Prisoner of Love, MCA, Chicago, IL, January 26 – October 20, 2019
Tate, Liverpool, United Kingdom, March 29 – May 12, 2019
PAMM, Miami, FL, August 30, 2018 – April 21, 2019
Luma Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland, October 12, 2018 –January 13, 2019
ICA Boston, Boston, MA, June 27 – Sept 30, 2018
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Rome, San’t Andrea De Scaphis, Rome, Italy, March 13, 2018 – April 14, 2018
Nothing Stable Under Heaven, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, March 3 – September 16, 2018
MCA Denver, Denver, CO, February 2–May 13, 2018
Davidson College Art Museum, Davidson, NC, January 25, 2018 – March 03, 2018
Elements of Vogue. A Case Study of Radical Performance, CA2M, Madrid, Spain, November 17, 2017 – May 6, 2018
Hirshhorn Museum, November 17, 2017
180 The Strand, London, London, United Kingdom, October 5, 2017 – December 14, 2017*
LUMA Foundation, Arles, France, 2017
MOCA, Detroit, September 21, 2017 – October 22, 2017
MOCA, LA, April 2 – June 12, 2017
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise Harlem, Nov. 12, 2016 – Jan 28, 2017
Love is the Message and the Message in Permanent Collections
SFMOMA
High Museum of Art
Smithsonian-Hirshhorn
MCA Chicago
Met Breuer
*Love is the Message had an extended run at the Store 180 Strand screened in a tent meant to evoke the Baptist churches of the American South.
A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions
Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (upcoming)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, June 29- August 9, 2019
Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic, January 17 – March 31, 2019
Julia Stoschek Collection, Collection, Berlin, February 11 – November 25, 2018
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, United Kingdom, June 8 – Sept 10, 2017*
*Concluded with a musical event featuring Okwui Okpokwasili, Jason Moran and Steve Coleman
APEX
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 29, 2020 through January 3, 2021
MOMA, New York City, NY
APEX GRID, part of Air Above Mountains, Gavin Brown Enterprise, New York City, NY 2018
LUMA Arles, Arles, France, July 02,2018 – November 04, 2018
APEX redacted, Flux Night, Atlanta, GA, November 7, 2015
APEX inPermanent Collections
SFMOMA
Arthur Jafa: Air Above Mountains, Unknown Pleasures
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York City, NY, May 4 – June 10, 2018
White Album
Screening, Purple Garden Cinema, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, CA, July 12, 2019
Arthur Jafa/Matrix 272, (featuring The White Album)commissioned by BAMPFA, Berkley, CA, December 12, 2018 – March 24, 2019
Other Exhibitions
Black Album/White Cube, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, June 20, 2020 – January 10, 2021
Nirin Naarm, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, September 28 – November 8, 2020
UNTITLED, 2020, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, March 22, 2020 – December 13, 2020
A Sculpture, a Film and Six Videos, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Middletown, Connecticut, September 8 – November 22, 2020
Arthur Jafa Solo Exhibition, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10 – August 30, 2020
Paul Pfeiffer / Washington D.C.: Exodus, Bortolami Gallery, Watergate Office Building, Washington D.C., October 26, 2019 – January 25, 2020
Surrounds 11 Installations, MOMA, New York City, NY, October 21, 2019 – January 4, 2020
Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Munich, Germany, November 28, 2019 – August 30, 2020
Forever Young – 10 Years Museum Brandhorst, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany, May 24, 2019 – April 2020
Hyper! A Journey Into Art And Music, Group Expo, Hamburg, Germany, March 1, 2019 – August 4, 2019
Ebsplloitation, Group Expo, Martos Gallery, New York City, NY, June 21 – August 3, 2018
May You Live In Interesting Times [58th Venice Biennale], Group Expo, Venice, Italy May 11 – November 24, 2019
Another Music In a Different Kitchen: Studio Recordings & Records by Artists, Group Expo, Karma Gallery, New York City, NY, April 7 – May 12, 2019
“Conversation and Screening in Conjunction with Medicine for a Nightmare,” Screening, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway, March 21, 2019
Medicine for a Nightmare, ft. Frida Orupabo, Oslo, Norway, March 1, 2019 – April 21, 2019
“Affective Proximity: Films by Arthur Jafa and Others; Conversation with Arthur Jafa and Greg Tate,” Screening, BAMPFA, Berkeley, CA, February 28, 2019
“Dreamweavers,” Group Expo, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA, February 13, 2019 – April 13, 2019
True Luxury: Art Acquisitions 2012-2018, Group Expo, Stedeliijk Museum, Amesterdam, Netherlands, September 22, 2018 – March 3, 2019
Arthur Jafa: Air Above Mountains, Unknown Pleasures, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York City, NY, May 4 – June 10, 2018
Truth: 24 frames per second, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, October 22, 2017 – January 28, 2018
“Carrie Mae Weems: The Shape of Things,” Screening, Park Avenue Armory, New York City, NY, December 17, 2017
“AFROGLOSSIA Film Program,” Performa 17, New York City, NY, November 6, 2017
The Body Politic: Video from the Met Collection, Met Breuer, New York City, NY, June 20, 2017 – September 3, 2017
“Dreams are Colder than Death,” “APEX_scenario,” “Cassowary: Mechanics of Empathy,” “Considerations,” Screenings, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY March 28, 2017
“Arthur Jafa and Manohla Dargis: A Screening and Conversation,” SUNY Purchase, New York City, NY, February 28, 2016
Ruffneck Constructivists, Group Expo, ft. Deshotten 1.0 by Arthur Jafa and Malik Sayeed, Curated by Kara Walker, Brooklyn, NY, February 12, 2014 – August 17, 2014
The Whole World is Rotten: Free Radicals and the Gold Coast Slave Castles of Paa Joe, Group Expo, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York City, NY, February 10, 2005 – March 12, 2005
Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art since 1970, Group Expo, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, January 22, 2005 – April 17, 2005
Black Belt, Group Expo, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, NY, 2003
My Black Death, Solo Exhibition, artspace International Artist-In-Residence Program, San Antonio, TX, Summer 2002
Social Formal, Group Expo, Westfälischer Kunstveren, Münster, Germany, 2002
Bitstreams, Group Expo, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, 2001
City Vision, Group Expo, Media City, Seoul, South Korea, 2000
2000 Whitney Biennale, Group Expo, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, 2000
Black Box, Group Expo, Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA, 2000
Mirror’s Edge, Group Expo, BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden, 1999
Artists Select, Group Expo, Artists Space, New York City, NY, 1999
AWARDS
Golden Lion Award, 58th Venice Biennale, 2019
Prix International d’Art Contemporain, Prince Pierre Foundation, 2019
Herb Alpert Award, 2018
Paul Robeson Award, Actor’s Equity Association, 2017
Best Documentary, Black Star Film Festival, Dreams are Colder than Death, 2013
Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival, Daughters of the Dust, 1992
REVIEWS
Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Responding to Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, the Message is Death.” YouTube, July 15, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=h5Wc7ANN6ww&feature=emb_logo.
Elmalik, Atheel. “Love is the Message, The Message is Death Roundtable II.” YouTube, June 28, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0tSyUMCnxo&feature=emb_logo.
Elmalik, Atheel. “Love is the Message, The Message is Death Roundtable.” Roundtable discussion with Tina Campt, Elleza Kelley, Peter L’Offcial, Thomas Lax, and Josh Begley. YouTube, June 27, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=391&v=tobLx14wHz0&feature=emb_logo.
Kalai, Leonidas. “Arthur Jafa: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death review.” Art Critique, June 27, 2020.
L’Official, Peter. “The Visual Frequency of Black Life.” The Paris Review, July 12, 2018. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/12/the-visual-frequency-of-black-life/.
Copeland, Huey. “Love is the Message, The Message is Death.” ASAP Journal, June 4, 2018. http://asapjournal.com/love-is-the-message-the-message-is-death-huey-copeland/.
Freeman, Nate. “The Messenger: How a Video by Arthur Jafa Became a Worldwide Sensation—and Described America to Itself.” ARTnews, March 27, 2018. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/icons-arthur-jafa-9971/.
Hornaday, Ann. “Filmmaker Arthur Jafa makes his Hirshorn debut with a stunning video installation.” Washington Post, November 15, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/filmmaker-arthur-jafa-makes-his-hirshhorn-debut-with-a-stunning-video-installation/2017/11/15/77337900-ca0f-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html.
Frankel, Eddie. “Arthur Jafa: Love is the Message, The Message Is Death review.” Time Out, October 5, 2017. https://www.timeout.com/london/art/arthur-jafa-love-is-the-message-the-message-is-death-454review.
Collymore, Nan. “Love is the Message.” C&, July 10, 2017. https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/love-is-the-message/.
Dean, Aria. “Film: Worry The Image.” Art in America, May 26, 2017. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/worry-the-image-63266/.
Molesworth, Helen. “Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death.” MOCA, April, 2017. https://www.moca.org/arthurjafaessay.
Gat, Orit. “Reviews / Arthur Jafa.” Frieze, January 22, 2017. https://frieze.com/article/arthur-jafa.
Scott, Andrea K. “Arthur Jafa’s Crucial Ode to Black America.” The New Yorker, January 12, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/23/arthur-jafas-crucial-ode-to-black-america.
Haslett, Tobi. “Object Lessons.” ArtForum, December 9, 2016. https://www.artforum.com/film/tobi-haslett-on-arthur-jafa-s-love-is-the-message-the-message-is-death-65183.
New York Art Beat. “Arthur Jafa ‘Love is The Message, The Message Is Death.’” NY Art Beat. http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2016/8D11.
A Series of utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions
Stamler, Hannah. “Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.” The Brooklyn Rail, November 2018. https://brooklynrail.org/2018/11/artseen/Arthur-Jafa-A-Series-of-Utterly-Improbable-Yet-Extraordinary-Renditions.
Scrimgeour, Alexander. “Arthur Jafa at Julia Stoschek Collection.” Spike Art Magazine, October 29, 2018.
Speed, Mitch. “Worrying the Note: A German Stage for Arthur Jafa’s Black American Chorus.” Momus, July 25, 2018. https://momus.ca/worrying-the-note-a-german-stage-for-arthur-jafas-black-american-chorus/.
L’Official, Peter. “The Visual Frequency of Black Life.” The Paris Review, July 12, 2018. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/12/the-visual-frequency-of-black-life/.
Charlesworth, J.J. “Arthur Jafa A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.” ArtReview, October 2017. https://artreview.com/reviews/ar_october_2017_review_arthur_jafa/.
Jones, Eliel. “A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.” MAP Magazine, July 2017. https://mapmagazine.co.uk/series-utterly-improbable-yet-extraordinary-rendit.
Fite-Wassilak, Chris. “Arthur Jafa: What We Don’t See.” Word Press, February 2, 2017. https://cfitewassilak.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/arthur-jafa-what-we-dont-see/.
The White Album
Fancher, Lou. “Arthur Jafa brings ‘White Album’ and unique take on race to Berkeley.” The Mercury News, January 15, 2019. https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/15/arthur-jafa-brings-white-album-and-unique-take-on-race-to-berkeley/.
Singer, Fanny. “Arthur Jafa’s ‘The White Album.’” e-flux, March 20, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/259117/arthur-jafa-s-the-white-album.
Little, Colony. “In ‘The White Album,’ Arthur Jafa Invents a New Film Language to Take on the Clichés of Empathy.” Artnet, January 24, 2019. https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/arthur-jafa-white-album-1448167.
Air Above Mountains, Unknown Pleasures
Fernandex, Mariana. “Arthur Jafa’s Unbridled View of Black America.” BESE, June 12, 2018. https://www.bese.com/arthur-jafas-unbridled-view-of-black-america/.
“Exhibition Review: Air Above Mountains, Unknown Pleasures.” Musee, June 7, 2018. https://museemagazine.com/culture/2018/6/7/exhibition-review-air-above-mountains-unknown-pleasures.
Tate, Greg. “Arthur Jafa at Gavin Brown.” Contemporary Art Daily, June 6, 2018. https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2018/06/arthur-jafa-at-gavin-brown/.
Mitter, Siddartha. “Arthur Jafa Taps Into the Underground Current Blacknuss.” Village Voice, May 25, 2018. https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/05/25/arthur-jafa-taps-into-the-underground-current-of-blacknuss/.
Kane, Ashleigh. “Arthur Jafa embodies one of the US’s earliest known trans women in new show.” Dazed, May 24, 2018. https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/40121/1/arthur-jafa-air-above-mountains-unknown-pleasures-gavin-brown-s-enterprise.
Smith, Roberta. “Arthur Jafa’s Profound Meditations on Black America.” The New York Times, May 17, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/arts/design/arthur-jafa-review-gavin-browns-enterprise.html.
APEX
Poynor, Rick. “Twisting the alien.” Eye magazine, September 25, 2018. http://www.eyemagazine.com/opinion/article/twisting-the-alien.
“Arthur Jafa “APEX”, Amar Kanwar “Such a Morning” and Pipilotti Rist “Pixel Forest” and Lily Gavin “A Story with Vincent” at Luma, Arles.” Mousse Magazine, 2018. http://moussemagazine.it/arthur-jafa-apex-amar-kanwar-morning-pipilotti-rist-pixel-forest-luma-arles-2018/.
Dreams are Colder than Death
Mu’min, Nijla. “LAFF Review: Arthur Jafa Conducts Multilayered Exploration of Blackness in ‘Dreams are Colder than Death.” Shadow and Act, April 20, 2017. https://shadowandact.com/laff-review-arthur-jafa-conducts-multilayered-exploration-of-blackness-in-dreams-are-colder-than-death.
Medicine for a Nightmare Collab Exhibition(ft. Love is the Message)
Lynne, Jessica. “Fride Orupabo & Arthur Jafa: Medicine for a Nightmare.” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2019. https://brooklynrail.org/2019/04/artseen/Frida-Orupabo-Arthur-Jafa-Medicine-for-a-Nightmare.
Khanna, Shama. “Frida Orupabo and Arthur Jafa – Medicine for a Nightmare.” Afterall, March 7, 2019. https://www.afterall.org/online/frida-orupabo-and-arthur-jafa-medicine-for-a-nightmare.
Ruffneck Constructivists Group Expo (ft. Deshotten 1.0)
Gerwin, Daniel. “Deconstructing an Artist’s Dubious Claim.” HyperAllergic, August 14, 2014. https://hyperallergic.com/143477/deconstructing-an-artists-dubious-claim/.
Newhall, Edith. “’Ruffneck Constructivists’ at Institute of Contemporary Art.” ARTnews, July 30, 2014. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/ruffneck-constructivists-2548/.
Nothing Stable Under HeavenGroup Expo (ft. Love is the Message)
Ross Muchnick, Justin. “Nothing Stable under Heaven at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.” NECSUS, November 23, 2018. https://necsus-ejms.org/nothing-stable-under-heaven-at-the-san-francisco-museum-of-modern-art/.
Wash Us in the Blood (Kanye West Music Video)
Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. “Kanye West: Wash Us in the Blood – an intensely potent study of race and faith.” The Guardian, June 30, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/30/kanye-west-wash-us-in-the-blood-review-new-track.
Adjei-Kontoh, Hubert. “Wash Us in the Blood.” The Pitchfork, June 30, 2020. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/kanye-west-wash-us-in-the-blood-ft-travis-scott/.
Other Reviews & Articles
Nyong’o, Tavia. “Arthur Jafa’s Glorious Vision and Kanye West’s Gilded Faith.” Georgia Public Broadcasting, July 8, 2020. https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/08/arthur-jafas-glorious-vision-and-kanye-wests-gilded-faith .
Ingram, Marielle. “Contracirculation: On rewriting the terms of engagement with images of Black suffering.” Real Life, June 29, 2020. https://reallifemag.com/contracirculation/.
Malavassi, Paola. “Arthur Jafa. Face It: The “Affective Proximity” of Imagery.” Flash Art, March 2, 2020. https://flash---art.com/article/arthur-jafa-face-it-the-affective-proximity-of-imagery/.
Da Costa, Cassie. “The Profound Power of the New Solange Videos.” The New Yorker, October 24, 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-profound-power-of-the-new-solange-videos.
Selected News
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Artist Arthur Jafa’s Renowned “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” To Be Streamed Continously Online for the First Time, June 26-28. June 24, 2020. https://americanart.si.edu/press/arthur-jafa-video-stream. stream
INTERVIEWS AND SCHOLARSHIP
Talks and Presentations
Pérez Art Museum Miami. “Scholl Lecture Series: Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, January 23, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnXCHVy6CGU.
“The Ecstatic Message: Talking Music and Moving Image Art with Ja’Tovia Gary and Arthur Jafa.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 12, 2019. https://americanart.si.edu/videos/ecstatic-message-talking-music-and-moving-image-art-artists-jatovia-gary-and-arthur-jafa.
TSingapore. “On Set | Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, August 19, 2019.
Moderna Museet. “Amira Gad on Arthur Jafa | Lecture.” YouTube, July 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiSX4WtTHQk.
Hammer Museum. “Saidiya Hartman & Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, June 10, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGxZQ3Py4-A.
American Academy in Berlin. “Artist Talk with Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbably, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.” YouTube, April 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_j1ahLzwI.
Luma Foundation. “Artist Talk: Arthur Jafa.” Vimeo, December 15, 2018. https://vimeo.com/307286991?share=copy.
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. “In Conversation: Arthur Jafa and Stephen Best.” YouTube, December 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcIBS015EIQ.
Therme Art. “Therme Forum: ‘Back to the Body: Human-Oriented Forms in Art, Design, and Architecture’/ Presented by Therme Group.” Vimeo, December 6, 2018. https://vimeo.com/310586856?share=copy.
Gavinbrown. “Arthur Jafa & Isis Pickens in conversation on Spirituality In Contemporary Black Life.” Vimeo, June 2, 2018. https://vimeo.com/274901100?share=copy.
SVA MFA Photo Video. “Arthur Jafa in Conversation with Amy Taubin.” YouTube, January 25, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkBySUdQrVc.
Art Basel. “Artist’s Influencers | Arthur Jafa and Jason Moran.” YouTube, December 20, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlqD21-a61Y.
“Arthur Jafa on the works of Kahlil Joseph, with curator Natalie Bell.” New Museum, December 10, 2017. https://archive.newmuseum.org/videos/13557.
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit – MOCAD. “Artist Talk: Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, October 4, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp5W9xUEtxI.
Tate Talks. “Kahlil Joseph & Arthur Jafa: In Conversation | Tate Talks.” YouTube, August 10, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPECh1Q2xQ.
Hammer Museum. “Arthur Jafa and Greg Tate.” YouTube, July 5, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAYSXam1vOA.
MOCA. “Arthur Jafa and Helen Molesworth in Conversation.” YouTube, April 11, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpJ5UMEeSXY.
“Kerry James Marshall—A Creative Convening, Morning Session.” The Met, January 20, 2017. https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/lectures/kerry-james-marshall-creative-convening-morning.
“Dreams are Colder than Death: Screening & Talk with Arthur Jafa.” Barnard, September 8, 2016. https://bcrw.barnard.edu/videos/dreams-are-colder-than-death-screening-talk-with-arthur-jafa/.
MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology. “Arthur Jafa, APEX_TNEG, February 25, 2013” YouTube, January 20, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUBm2_v5RUw.
MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology. “Laura Marks, Arthur Jafa, Cinematic Migrations, March 7, 2014” YouTube, January 20, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW9Tu_Ga1N4.
Jada Nycole. “Arthur Jafa” Arthur Jafa visits Spelman College. Introduced by Aku Kadogo with Spelman’s Collaborative Arts Class. YouTube, October 5, 2015.
The New School. “bell hooks and Arthur Jafa Discuss Transgression in Public Spaces at The New School.” YouTube, October 16, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-7ILSKSog.
Deebeezy. “Arthur Jafa on Michael Jackson as Self-Loather, Shape Shifter & Classically Black.” YouTube, June 7, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPF4jRyDo0.
Deebeezy. “Arthur Jafa on The Impact of Michael Jackson's Isolation From the Black Community.” YouTube, June 7, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XupX6XZGX7g.
Print Interviews
Simonini, Ross. “An Interview with Arthur Jafa.” The Believer, June 1, 2020.
Acyde and Tremaine Emory. “All Love: Arthur Jafa in Conversation.” The Face, March 5, 2020. https://theface.com/audio/arthur-jafa-podcast-acyde-tremaine-emory-volume-4-issue-3.
Blythe, Finn. “Arthur Jafa on his groundbreaking film Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death, three years on.” Another Man, November 12, 2019. https://www.anothermanmag.com/life-culture/11008/arthur-jafa-love-is-the-message-death-artwork-film-2016-interview.
Parker, Morgan. “Between Stillness: Arthur Jafa and the Cinematic Revolution.” Cultured, September 25, 2019. https://www.culturedmag.com/arthur-jafa/.
i-D Staff. “listen in on a phone call between Virgil Abloh and Arthur Jafa.” Vice, September 16, 2019. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/43k37p/virgil-abloh-arthur-jafa-interview-the-post-truth-truth-issue.
Public Delivery. “Arthur Jafa: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death.” Public Delivery, August 31, 2019. https://publicdelivery.org/arthur-jafa-love-is-the-message/.
Ozuna, Tony. “Black Beauties—Arthur Jafa at the 58th Venice Art Biennale, 2019.” Jazz in Europe, August 19, 2019. https://jazzineurope.mfmmedia.nl/2019/08/black-beauties-arthur-jafa-at-the-58th-venice-art-biennale-2019/.
O’Grady, Megan. “Arthur Jafa in Bloom.” New York Times, August 14, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/t-magazine/arthur-jafa-in-bloom.html.
Kale, Neha. “Arthur Jafa: ‘I’m not going to decentre blackness in my work’.” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 17, 2019. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/arthur-jafa-i-m-not-going-to-decentre-blackness-in-my-work-20190513-p51ms3.html.
Rees, Sarah. “For Arthur Jafa, Black art is the heart of America.” Sydney Opera House, May 11, 2019. https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/art/arthur-jafa-interview-black-art-heart-of-america.html.
Cielatkowska, Zofia. “Affecting the Body.” Kunstkritikk, April 11, 2019. https://kunstkritikk.com/affecting-the-body/.
Hotchkiss, Sarah. “Arthur Jafa Does Not Want to Be Known as 'The Found Footage Guy'.” KQED, February 21, 2019. https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851306/arthur-jafa-does-not-want-to-be-known-as-the-found-footage-guy.
Fancher, Lou. “Arthur Jafa brings ‘White Album’ and unique take on race to Berkeley.” The Mercury News, January 15, 2019. https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/15/arthur-jafa-brings-white-album-and-unique-take-on-race-to-berkeley/.
Yu, Brandon. “Arthur Jafa’s New Work Continues to Examine the Dynamics of Race.” East Bay Express, December 12, 2018. https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/arthur-jafas-new-work-continues-to-examine-the-dynamics-of-race/Content?oid=23672129.
Gebreyesus, Ruth. “Why the film-maker behind Love Is the Message is turning his lens to whiteness.” The Guardian, December 11, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/dec/11/arthur-jafa-video-artist-love-is-the-message.
Kane, Ashleigh. “Arthur Jafa embodies one of the US’s earliest known trans women in new show.” Dazed, May 24, 2018. https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/40121/1/arthur-jafa-air-above-mountains-unknown-pleasures-gavin-brown-s-enterprise.
Bueti, Federica. “Arthur Jafa at Julia Stschek Collection, Berlin: Viewpoint.” Ocula Magazine, May 17, 2018. https://ocula.com/magazine/reports/in-focus-arthur-jafa-at-julia-stoschek-collec/?auth=req.
1.4. “In conversation with Arthur Jafa.” 1.4, April 27, 2018. https://www.onepointfour.co/2018/04/27/in-conversation-with-arthur-jafa/.
Freeman, Nate. “The Messenger: How a Video by Arthur Jafa Became a Worldwide Sensation—and Described America to Itself.” ARTnews, March 27, 2018. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/icons-arthur-jafa-9971/.
Clayton, Jace. “As Brilliant as the Sun.” Frieze, February 22, 2018. https://frieze.com/article/brilliant-sun.
Brown, Kate. “‘Black People Figured Out How to Make Culture in Freefall’: Arthur Jafa on the Creative Power of Melancholy.” Artnet, February 21, 2018. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/arthur-jafa-julia-stoschek-collection-1227422.
Lopez-Sanchez, Jose. “BYT Interviews: Arthur Jafa.” Brightest Young Things, November 15, 2017. https://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/byt-interviews-arthur-jafa.
Da Costa, Cassie. “Interview: Arthur Jafa.” Film Comment, May 8, 2017. https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-arthur-jafa/.
Shadow and Act. “Blackstar 2015: Arthur Jafa & Elissa Blount-Moorhead Talk TNEG, Their Recently-Launched Production Studio.” Shadow and Act, April 20, 2017. https://shadowandact.com/blackstar-2015-arthur-jafa-elissa-blount-moorhead-talk-tneg-their-recently-launched-production-studio/.
Campt, Tina. “Love is the Message, The Plan is Death.” E-flux, no. 81 (2017). https://www.e-flux.com/journal/81/126451/love-is-the-message-the-plan-is-death/.
Daderko, Dean. “III Suns” Arthur Jafa and Sondra Perry.” Mousse Magazine, February-March, 2017. http://moussemagazine.it/arthur-jafa-sondra-perry-dean-daderko-2017/.
Sergeant, Antwaun. “Arthur Jafa and the Future of Black Cinema.” Interview Magazine, January 11, 2017. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/arthur-jafa.
Video Interviews
MOCA. “Virtual Studio Visits: Klaus Biesenbach in Conversation with Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, July 11, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrUj2sO0Jdw .
Biennale Channel. “Biennale Arte 2019 – Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, May 28, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz_FJi2lhck.
Louisiana Channel. “Arthur Jafa Interview: Not All Good, Not All Bad.” YouTube, May 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprTrTgXvZ8.
Sydney Opera House. “Meet Arthur Jafa, Solange and Spike Lee collaborator.” YouTube, May 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su48ngKNpwc.
Luma Arles. “Arthur Jafa – APEX (Interview).” YouTube, September 18, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIiK5o5Uho.
Hirshorn. “Love is the Message: An Evening with Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, March 16, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOYd_IAPIe0.
The Thing About. “Black Peoples Funk – The Thing About…Art & Artists – Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, December 13, 2017.
SHOWstudio. “In Your Face: Interview – Arthur Jafa.” YouTube, November 24, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAk0dk0IAWw.
Judith Benhamou-Huet Reports. “Arthur Jafa Speaks about Black Artists.” YouTube, November 22, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIHG3plDLXA.
Serpentine Galleries. “Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.” YouTube, July 5, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wtX1B-ioo8.
Advalt. “Arthur jafa – apex (extract).” YouTube, February 10, 2017.
Reelblack One. “Arthur Jafa and Hans L. Charles - On Advancing A Black Aesthetic.” YouTube, October 26, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Qmy6wtEOo.
Scholarship
Jafa, Arthur. “69.” In Black popular culture/ A Project by Michele Wallace, edited by Gina Dent. Seattle: Bay Press, 1992.
Jafa, Arthur. “Black Visual Intonation.” In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, edited by Robert G. O’Meally. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Jafa, Arthur. “La Venus Negre.” Artforum International 30, no. 5 January (1992): 90-93.
Jafa, Arthur. “Like Rashomon but Different: The New Black Cinema.” Artforum International 31, no. 10 Summer (1993).
Jafa, Arthur. “My Black Death.” In Everything but the burden: what white people are taking from Black culture, edited by Greg Tate. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
Hessli, Peter and Arthur Jafa. “The Notion of Treatment: Black Aesthetics and Film.” Diss. In Oscar Micheaux and His Circle, edited by Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines and Charles Musser. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Marshall, Kerry James, Terrie Sultan, and Arthur Jafa. Kerry James Marshall. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
Still, The White Album (2018)
Still, Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016)
Still, Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016)