The moving video installation by artist, director, and award-winning cinematographer Arthur Jafa, titled Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death (2016), is going to be displayed at numerous museums in the United States and Europe, such as the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, and the Tate in London, that will simultaneously broadcast Love is the Message on their websites, from June 26 at 2 p.m. EDT to Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. EDT.
The 7-minute video explores African-American identity through a sprawling montage of clips from multiple sources as well as images shot by Jafa himself, such as a civil rights march, former U.S. President Barack Obama singing “Amazing Grace” at the eulogy for the 9 Charleston parishioners killed by a white supremacist, Martin Luther King waving from the back of a car, Beyoncé in music video 7/11, a police officer throwing a teenage girl to the ground at a pool party in Texas. Also, Love Is The Message is set to Kanye West’s gospel-inspired hip-hop track, “Ultralight Beam.
“I want to make Black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of black music. That’s my big goal,” Arthur said to Tate in a statement. Watch the recorded installation below.