ARTHUR JAFA, “Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio,” 2017 (chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 52 × 83 inches / 132.1 × 210.8 cm). | Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Marilyn and Larry Fields, 2023.61. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen
A PROLIFERATION OF CELEBRATED Black contemporary artists focuses on figuration and portraiture and explores joy, leisure, and self-representation. Arthur Jafa (b. 1960) doesn’t do that. He has a very different take on examining the Black experience and attempting to embody Black experiences in his work.
Jafa’s practice is an elegy on Black life, interrogating all of its layers, nuance, and complexity through the powerful language of visual imagery. He compiles and juxtaposes moving and still images. His best-known works are video montages tuned to incredibly affecting music.
Born in Tupelo, Miss., the Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker works across film, video, photography, and sculpture. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago boasts one of the largest collections of Jafa’s thought-provoking work and is showcasing its holdings in a survey exhibition. “Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection” presents four major video works produced over the past decade. The video installations “APEX” (2013), “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” (2016), “Akingdoncomethas” (2018), and “The White Album” (2018), for which the artist won the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, are on view with additional photographic and sculptural works.
“A lot of Black artists do uplift, but I don’t really do uplift, I’m an undertaker. And it, it really is about, you know, a certain attraction to the shadows, attraction to where the bodies are buried, attraction to what things are actually about.” — Arthur Jafa
On the occasion of the exhibition, MCA Chicago spent time with Jafa in his studio to learn more about his work. In a video documenting the visit, the artist shares and reflects. He talks about his work, his love of Black people, and interest in their “superpowers.” He also discusses his unique perspective, which decades ago he felt made some people uncomfortable. An African filmmaker Jafa met in film school helped him to understand there was power in his view of the world, as a visionary documentarian and storyteller, in the same vein as a griot.
“I have a profound, not just love of Black people, but interest in Black people. I think it’s fascinating. I think being Black in a white supremacist environment is fascinating. Often fun, generally harrowing. I like to say that we have an ethical mandate to sort of mine the catastrophe of who we are and how we came into being,” Jafa said in the video below.
“A lot of Black artists do uplift, but I don’t really do uplift, I’m an undertaker. And it, it really is about, you know, a certain attraction to the shadows, attraction to where the bodies are buried, attraction to what things are actually about. So it’s really trying to be aligned with the sort of classic superpower of Black people, which is this keeping shit real, you know, calling it what it is. Black people can lie like anybody else, but classically, we don’t lie to ourselves. I don’t think we could have survived the experience of slavery if we were lying to ourselves, you know? So…I’m trying to make work less about Black people and make work like Black people.” CT
“Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection” is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, from June 1, 2024-March 2, 2025
FIND MORE about Arthur Jafa’s featured videos via summary, excerpts and brief commentary from the artist: APEX, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, Akingdoncomethas, and The White Album
FIND MORE about Arthur Jafa at Gladstone Gallery on Instagram
In his studio surrounded by some of his work, Los Angeles artist Arthur Jafa talks about his practice and his perspectives on the occasion of the exhibition “Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. | Video by MCA Chicago
BOOKSHELF
Published a few years ago to coincide with his exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, “Arthur Jafa: MAGNUMB” provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s video work. “Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions” also documents the artist’s work. “Cahiers d’Art: Arthur Jafa: 43rd Year” counts Hans Ulrich Obris among its contributors. Jafa has also participated as an interviewer in publications dedicated to the work of other artists. Such volumes include “Ming Smith: An Aperture Monograph,” “Deanna Lawson: An Aperture Monograph,” and the newly published “Isabelle Albuquerque: Orgy for Ten People in One Body.”
