Arthur Jafa - Journey Entry 32 Xiongyue Yu

Arthur Jafa 

Arthur Jafa is an American video artist and cinematographer. His work has always been steeped in a deep cultural heritage due to his early influences of educated parents and Catholic thinking and concepts. This, coupled with the fact that he grew up watching a lot of science fiction shows, has given him the ability to bring reality to life in a more science fictional way and to have a more compelling way to appreciate the audio and visual artwork he creates. As a result, many of his works are in major art museums, and the beauty and detachment at the heart of the black American experience in Arthur Jafa's work is at the heart of his artistic style.

 

Love is the Message, The Message is Death

This is a seven-minute short film, a stream-of-consciousness collage of videos of black-related social events that occurred, paired with classic songs from various historical eras. The seemingly disorganized video memories come together to form this beautiful and complex work. It is likely that this short film will stir up a great deal of passionate emotion, especially among black viewers who are fellow citizens. The film's prose links footage of police violence with footage of the civil rights movement, and those of black art, pop culture, celebration, and creativity are juxtaposed together. There is the indulgence of the street and the majesty of the podium. It is the overwhelmingly recognized, complete, dialectical look at black life, for beneath the visually visible art, passion and chaos is the power of racism in a country and how black people struggle to hold on to life, creativity and smiles despite these unjust conditions.

 

Arthur Jafa and Bell Hooks

An open conversation hosted by Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts between Bell Hooks and Arthur Jafa. Bell Hooks opened the conversation by saying that her work was greatly inspired by Arthur Jafa. Arthur Jafa spoke of his own inspiration, which remains his feelings about race and the dialectic of traditional culture that inspires him to use his work to convey the power and influence he has on these matters. He is also able to consider other groups of people who are also disadvantaged under his own perspective and viewpoint. Such diversity and open-mindedness is also displayed in his free and pure work. As a brilliant and hardworking black woman director, whose numerous works have left a significant mark on black art, she also expresses her hopes for her future education in this conversation.

 

Bell Hooks

As mentioned in the conversation above, Bell Hooks is an American writer, theorist, educator and social commentator. As a black woman writer, she writes on topics mostly about race issues, feminism, and social class. She has used her talents and efforts to explore the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender through the power of words, and the forces she describes as leading to the creation and perpetuation of systems of oppression and class domination. A diligent social critic, Bell Hooks has published dozens of literary works on a variety of subjects and has been active in lectures and seminars, the most direct way to communicate her ideas to others in the academy and to young students in the field of education who are learning to accept and perceive this rich freedom of thought. Her life has been a life of struggle, and it is with her life's work that she is leading the way to the future she desires.

 

Bell Hooks with Theaster Gates and Laurie Anderson: Public Art, Private Vision I The New School

As scholar-in-residence at the Eugene Lang College of Arts and Sciences, Bell Hooks lectures and discusses with Theaster Gates and Laurie Anderson about art in today's popular culture. As she argues in her book, she believes that works that are normatively labeled as 'great' are only those that linger longest in one's memory. They linger because in looking at them, someone is moved, touched, taken to another place, reborn in an instant. And as cultural art that can leave today's memories in the future, it should also be full of passion for reality, breaking the deadlock caused by all kinds of real problems, and intervening in the inherent stereotypes and consciousness of the world with a critical expression. This is also the attitude she has been personally promoting towards various class and racial issues. It was after accepting the tragic dimension of black life that she saw the painful structure in the work of those black artists, a profound implication beneath the playfulness. The audience also interacted with insight, and underneath Bell Hooks' erudition and creativity, it was her humility and desire to learn that made people want to listen to what she had to share and teach.

 

” This ain’t no pussy shit”

The topic of Bell Hooks' presentation at the Eugene Lang College of Arts and Sciences was to reflect on feminism and its legacy in today's popular culture. Bell Hooks was joined in this discussion by Beverly Guy-Sheftall, a feminist scholar, writer, and editor, and Anna Julia Cooper, a feminist, writer, and professor of women's studies, who led the talk, which was more of a stream-of-consciousness presentation based on Hooks' ideas. stream-of-consciousness presentation. Because the participants' accomplishments and work have opened up a dialogue to some extent about the role of women in the world, and the misunderstandings and hurt that often exist among women in the context of traditional patriarchal societies, such a conversation also provokes reflection on deep-rooted stereotypes of women, and indeed challenges thinking about the role of women in family relationships.

 

Arthur Jafa in Conversation with Greg Tate

Arthur Jafa's conversation with cultural critic Greg Tate was more about the art of film and television, but the ultimate theme remains about the representation of black cultural production and its genesis. From 1990 to 2007, Jafa filled nearly 200 three-ring binders with images from a variety of sources reflecting various aspects of black culture. These "picture books," which were exhibited at Made in LA 2016, form an unexpected lyrical juxtaposition that represents Jafa's interest in black aesthetics and his experiments with context, belonging, and alienation. And in their discussion of Jafa's Love is the Message, The Message is Death, the complexity, resilience, pain, hope, and value of black life are carefully captured in quick glimpses, fragments, and sound bites. The conversation between the two men stands on the same ground and discursive thinking, with an open and inclusive mind, and a deeper exchange in their mutual understanding and research.

 

Greg Tate

Gregory Stephen Tate is an acclaimed American writer, musician, professor and producer. A longtime critic of The Village Voice, Tate has a particular interest in African American music and culture, and has helped establish black hip-hop as a genre worthy of musical criticism under his influence. His actions stemmed from his own early musical career in which he experienced unequal treatment under racial issues, and as a result opposed the racist and reactionary forces of white supremacy in the American music industry, which Tate believed undermined and stole the musical heritage belonging to African Americans and denied black artists freedom of expression and financial rewards. He ultimately chose to use literary criticism to expose and critique the disastrous effects of these silly racial stereotypes on black people, and his talent and unique critical perspective has made him one of New York City's leading cultural critics.

 

Everything but the Burden…

In Everything but the Burden..., Greg Tate continues his original vision and quest to return to the blacks themselves the honor, praise, and wealth that should be theirs. In the process of spreading and intermingling information, the young whites of the era absorbed and appropriated the styles of music, dance, dress, and even language created by blacks with unprecedented speed and extent. Because of the principle of white supremacy in popular culture, the voices coming through white people would become the source and popular recognized by the public. In this environment, Tate brings together the essays and perspectives of several writers in this book, and based on his own collection of voices from music, pop culture, the literary world, and the media, tells the story of how whiteness from Brooklyn to the Badlands merged black culture, art, and style into one. And it attempts to examine what attitudes white people have displayed about this phenomenon or should be analyzed and judged as a more complex form of cultural exchange.

 

Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America

This book is a roundup of essays and stories by Greg Tate in response to a question about American music and culture, although the subject matter may seem to be solely culture-specific, an important work in the often-overlooked field of African American cultural theory and writing. But Tate stands out from his usual approach this time, exploring social, political, and economic themes that are closely related to culture alongside his subject matter. He writes in a courageous and distinctive voice, and each essay in it is Tate's insightful look at where America is going and why. As a result, the book has become a major "classic" of art, music and cultural documentation and reflection in the 1980s and 1990s, with content centered on New York, the African-American culture of the East Coast diaspora and other expanding peoples. trajectory. He also proves, like all his doubters, that he has built a career in both literature and art.