24.2.21 Dexter's seminar 6: Arthur Jafa
I want us to look at and think about the work of the artist Arthur Jafa
This interview with Jafa is something that I suggest you watch more than once as there are several themes he is discussing
Watch : Arthur Jafa Interview: Not All Good, Not All Bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprTrTgXvZ8
Below is a link to the work he discusses - unfortunately the original artwork is not online ( for copyright reasons) but this is a full video taking form the installation at the Hirshorn Museum in Washington
Watch : Love is the Message ,the message is death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1McJ8cci3Y
( feel free to research other videos and interviews also )
Task : I would like you to look again at your own The Great Reset film you made for the earlier seminar and remove the audio and find some music ( different from the first time ) to use as the soundtrack. Thinking about how music can change the experience AND bring along to the seminar .
This interview with Jafa is something that I suggest you watch more than once as there are several themes he is discussing
Watch : Arthur Jafa Interview: Not All Good, Not All Bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprTrTgXvZ8
Below is a link to the work he discusses - unfortunately the original artwork is not online ( for copyright reasons) but this is a full video taking form the installation at the Hirshorn Museum in Washington
Watch : Love is the Message ,the message is death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1McJ8cci3Y
( feel free to research other videos and interviews also )
Task : I would like you to look again at your own The Great Reset film you made for the earlier seminar and remove the audio and find some music ( different from the first time ) to use as the soundtrack. Thinking about how music can change the experience AND bring along to the seminar .
'Arthur Jafa Interview, Not all Good, Not all Bad
Putting things together to see them, and to see what attracts you to them.
Being attracted to abject things, staring, documenting through photos. 'I push towards things that disturb me.'
Being part of it, but also being an observer:
American pictures, Jacob Holdt & Birney Imes
Phones, documentation and globalisation: everyone having a camera/video in their hand has changed what we now see in terms of evidence/news. He suggests that it's only very recently, about 5 years ago, that the internet began to be used as a tool for protest. He started collecting footage as it's ephemeral.
'How important is the music?'(Kanye's Ultralight being is the main track) He says it was 80% complete without the music. He just 'strung together' the video footage but he was shocked and amazed at the confluence between what he had made and Kanye's lyrics.
Ultralight beam, Kanye West
Yes, God)
We don't want no devils in the house, God (Yes, Lord)
We want the lord (Yes, Jesus)
And that's it (Yes, God)
Hallej- hand over Satan (Yes, Jesus)
Jesus praise the Lord (Yes God)
Hallelujah, God (Yes, God)
We don't want no devils in the house, God (Yes, Lord)
We want the lord (Yes, Jesus)
And that's it (Yes, God)
Hallej- hand over Satan (Yes, Jesus)
Jesus praise the Lord (Yes, God)
I'm tryna keep my faith
We on an ultralight beam
We on an ultralight beam
This is a God dream
This is a God dream
This is everything
This is everything
Deliver us serenity
Deliver us peace
Deliver us loving
We know we need it
You know we need it
You know we need it
That's why we need you now, oh, I
Pray for Paris
Pray for the parents
This is a God dream
This is a God dream
This is a…
'Is it a portrait of America in 2018?'
Authorship: 'I had a rock and I started chiselling it until it began to take form and then I refined it. I didn't set out to make a portrait of America.'
'It's there to be thought about.' It's very intuitive. He's very cerebral, but also led by the materials. The cerebral comes in once the thing is formed. 'What is the thing trying to be? I try to accommodate what this thing is trying to be. It's incubated. It's engendering itself. It's coming into being'.... For him blackness is fundamentally philosophical, not wholly as there's always a political, social, economic, aesthetic angle. 'It's on level of ideation, existential.'
Blackness and abjection: 'It's extremely complex, coming to terms with being part of a community that is seen in some ways as the emblem of abjection.The way blackness exists in relation to whiteness and purity is a very complicated thing.' He talks about the 'accidental whiteness of Graeco-Roman sculpture.' They were actually originally painted, multicoloured, very vibrant.... but at some point were painted white. The whiteness is a metacondition, tied to the whiteness of white supremacy. Whiteness is evil, not white people. Like patriarchy, men aren't inherently evil, patriarchy is..
Making arresting work: 'Love is the message is arresting, like Bernini. Taut bodies produce an empathetic and haptic relationship.' Lots of art throughout history has been political. He's resistant to the idea that Love is the message is a political emblem.... Black Lives Matter came into being during Obama's presidency, not Trump's. Complexities of black & white and goodness... Love is the message doesn't have hierarchies. 'It's hopeful and melancholy. Maybe that's why it appeals. It's not all good, not all bad.'
Audience: 'I'm addressing black people, as an abstract idea.... I'm not making work for white people. I'm addressing black people and everybody else gets to listen in. Specifically the black American community. 'White people are addressed all the time. I am addressing your needs by NOT addressing you.'
Putting things together to see them, and to see what attracts you to them.
Being attracted to abject things, staring, documenting through photos. 'I push towards things that disturb me.'
Being part of it, but also being an observer:
American pictures, Jacob Holdt & Birney Imes
Phones, documentation and globalisation: everyone having a camera/video in their hand has changed what we now see in terms of evidence/news. He suggests that it's only very recently, about 5 years ago, that the internet began to be used as a tool for protest. He started collecting footage as it's ephemeral.
'How important is the music?'(Kanye's Ultralight being is the main track) He says it was 80% complete without the music. He just 'strung together' the video footage but he was shocked and amazed at the confluence between what he had made and Kanye's lyrics.
Ultralight beam, Kanye West
Yes, God)
We don't want no devils in the house, God (Yes, Lord)
We want the lord (Yes, Jesus)
And that's it (Yes, God)
Hallej- hand over Satan (Yes, Jesus)
Jesus praise the Lord (Yes God)
Hallelujah, God (Yes, God)
We don't want no devils in the house, God (Yes, Lord)
We want the lord (Yes, Jesus)
And that's it (Yes, God)
Hallej- hand over Satan (Yes, Jesus)
Jesus praise the Lord (Yes, God)
I'm tryna keep my faith
We on an ultralight beam
We on an ultralight beam
This is a God dream
This is a God dream
This is everything
This is everything
Deliver us serenity
Deliver us peace
Deliver us loving
We know we need it
You know we need it
You know we need it
That's why we need you now, oh, I
Pray for Paris
Pray for the parents
This is a God dream
This is a God dream
This is a…
'Is it a portrait of America in 2018?'
Authorship: 'I had a rock and I started chiselling it until it began to take form and then I refined it. I didn't set out to make a portrait of America.'
'It's there to be thought about.' It's very intuitive. He's very cerebral, but also led by the materials. The cerebral comes in once the thing is formed. 'What is the thing trying to be? I try to accommodate what this thing is trying to be. It's incubated. It's engendering itself. It's coming into being'.... For him blackness is fundamentally philosophical, not wholly as there's always a political, social, economic, aesthetic angle. 'It's on level of ideation, existential.'
Blackness and abjection: 'It's extremely complex, coming to terms with being part of a community that is seen in some ways as the emblem of abjection.The way blackness exists in relation to whiteness and purity is a very complicated thing.' He talks about the 'accidental whiteness of Graeco-Roman sculpture.' They were actually originally painted, multicoloured, very vibrant.... but at some point were painted white. The whiteness is a metacondition, tied to the whiteness of white supremacy. Whiteness is evil, not white people. Like patriarchy, men aren't inherently evil, patriarchy is..
Making arresting work: 'Love is the message is arresting, like Bernini. Taut bodies produce an empathetic and haptic relationship.' Lots of art throughout history has been political. He's resistant to the idea that Love is the message is a political emblem.... Black Lives Matter came into being during Obama's presidency, not Trump's. Complexities of black & white and goodness... Love is the message doesn't have hierarchies. 'It's hopeful and melancholy. Maybe that's why it appeals. It's not all good, not all bad.'
Audience: 'I'm addressing black people, as an abstract idea.... I'm not making work for white people. I'm addressing black people and everybody else gets to listen in. Specifically the black American community. 'White people are addressed all the time. I am addressing your needs by NOT addressing you.'
My Unravelling video, with music!
Louisiana Channel (2019) Arthur Jafa interview: Not all Good, Not all Bad Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprTrTgXvZ8 (Accessed 20 February 2021)