Arthur Jafa, Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death, 2016 (Film still) Courtesy the artist.

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the global protests calling for an end to racial violence, Arthur Jafa’s brilliant film akingdoncomethas, made after Love is The Message, The Message is Death, has been screened online on MoMA’s website. The video assembles over 100 minutes of footage of Black church services collected by the artist, channeling what he calls his “belief in Black people believing.”

In recognition of the screening and the importance of Jafa’s work during this period of learning and introspection, we revisit our interview with the former Spike Lee collaborator from last year, in which he discussed his landmark film Love is The Message in antcipation of its presentation in Turin. Watch a short clip of akingdoncomethas here.

“I’m a systems person,” says artist, filmmaker and cinematographer Arthur Jafa, “Someone who thinks very much in terms of structure.” Having directed Spike Lee’s Crooklyn in 1994 and conducted second unit photography for Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 Eyes Wide Shut, Jafa is well versed in the art of such structures; the affective chemistry of shot length, narrative, lighting, music and rhythm that underpin the work of those masters.

Nowhere is that esteemed tutelage more evident than in his film Love is The Message, The Message is Death, first shown in 2016 at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in Harlem. Made of collaged film clips, from viral YouTube classics to civil rights marches, legendary black musicians to harrowing incidents of police brutality, the film flits hypnotically between found footage to the soundtrack of Kanye West’s Ultralight Beam. As much as it celebrates the cultural strength of blackness and its subjection to white violence, Love is The Message reflects Jafa’s formal training in feature films and his deft ability to transfix audiences with impactful imagery and sharp editing.

Since it was released, Jafa has grown into one of the most sought-after artists, directing music videos for Solange and Jay-Z, assisting fellow director and friend Khalil Joseph on Beyonce’s Lemonade and winning the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Biennial for his new film, The White Album. Now with the work back on show in Turin’s Palazzo Madama after Jafa was selected as winner of the 47th Prix International d’Art Contemporain, the artist has an opportunity to reflect on what its success has taught him.

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