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The Arts Intel Report

Love is the Message, The Message is Death

Aug 30, 2020 – Mar 7, 2021
1717 N Harwood St, Dallas, TX 75201, USA

“To make these wrongs turn right / Head up high, I look to the light,” sings Kanye West, the enigmatic rapper, in his hit song “Ultralight Beam” (2016). West was singing to God, questioning him about racism and unfairness in society, which is reason enough for the American artist Arthur Jafa, who is Black, to choose it as a soundtrack for this video installation. Collages of Black artists, scholars, athletes, and politicians are mixed with episodes of physical brutality and spiritual transcendence. In myriad images and voices, Jafa creates a kaleidoscope of history, tradition, and injustice. —E.C.

Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, 2016. Dallas Museum of Art. Gift of Marguerite Steed Hoffman and Thomas W. Lentz, 2017. Courtesy of Arthur Jafa and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, Rome.