Artist Arthur Jafa’s powerful video examination of Black life in America, “Love is the Message, The Message is Death,” was streamed continuously online by SAAM and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from June 26 to 28. The video offers a moving montage of original and appropriated footage that explores the mix of joy and pain, transcendence and tragedy that characterize the Black American experience.
Viewers were encouraged to share responses to the artwork, which will guide this online conversation with E. Carmen Ramos, acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art at SAAM, Rhea Combs, curator of film and photography at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Saisha Grayson, SAAM’s curator of time-based media. Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, will offer short introductory remarks.
YouTube Link to come