Arthur Jafa's 'Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death' streams globally amid Black Lives Matter protests

This weekend, 13 global art institutions, such as the Smithsonian, Tate, and Stedelijk Museum, will stream Arthur Jafa's 2016 video 'Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death.' The seven-minute film, which premiered at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York, features a century of African-American visuals accompanied by Kanye West's 'Ultralight Beam.' It contrasts moments of success with instances of police brutality, incorporating home videos and historical clips to highlight systemic racism. In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Jafa expressed concerns that emotional reactions might not lead to meaningful engagement with black trauma, cautioning that providing white audiences with emotional moments could hinder actions beyond mere emotional release, raising questions about imagery's role in societal transformation.