ARTHUR JAFA: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet ... Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary...

ARTHUR JAFA:

A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions

Featuring Ming Smith, Frida Orupabo and Missylanyus

SERPENTINE SACKLER GALLERY

8 JUNE – 10 SEPTEMBER 2017

LIST OF WORKS

Unless otherwise stated all works are courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise,

New York / Rome.

SOUTH GALLERY, SOUTH POWDER ROOM & WEST PERIMETER

Arthur Jafa

Mix 1 – 3_constantly evolving 2017

Video installation, three screens

Jafa has reconfigured the spaces of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery by creating two, angled

projection screens in the corners of the Gallery and one suspended screen in the South Powder

Room, each of which display different videos. Jafa views these works as ‘mixes’ that are constantly

evolving, comprising moving image material, both found and created, that he has edited together

with a sonic score accessed via wireless headphones. Visitors are invited to wear these

headphones as they move throughout the space, switching between the three channels as they

view each video. The expanded and cinematic nature of Jafa’s moving images is emphasised by

the localised effect of ‘tuning in’ to each soundtrack, as well as the artist’s sampling and mixing

together of different music. Across each screen, viewers hear a selection of sounds, from the guitar

solo of the African American musician, Eddie Hazel, who played with the funk, soul and rock music

collective, Parliament-Funkadelic, to the jazz pianist, Alice Coltrane.

Jafa has incorporated other ‘platforms’ into these video works. One projection includes material

from the YouTube channel of Missylanyus, which Jafa stumbled across in the sidebar of his web

browser whilst listening to music. The channel’s owner and creator is seen performing to the

camera, intensely absorbed by the sound and voyeuristic lens of the webcam. Jafa has also

featured material from the Instagram feed of Frida Orupabo (@nemiepeba), whose photographic

works are on display in this exhibition.

SOUTH GALLERY

Arthur Jafa

Jonathan 2017

Wallpaper

Copyright Jim Kean/Marin Independent Journal

This photographic montage depicts Jonathan P. Jackson during the Marin County courthouse

incident on 7 August 1970. Jackson attempted to negotiate the freedom of a group called the

Soledad Brothers, three African-American inmates charged with the murder of a White prison

guard in retaliation to the shooting deaths of three Black prisoners during a prison fight three

days prior. Jonathan’s brother, George Jackson, was an activist, Marxist, author, member of the

revolutionary Black Panther Party, and one of the three Soledad Brothers who Jonathan attempted

to emancipate. He kidnapped Superior Court judge Harold Haley from the Marin County Civic

Centre in San Raphael, California, which resulted in a shootout leaving four men dead, including

both Jonathan and Judge Haley.

Jafa has appropriated an archival photograph from the Marin Independent Journal to produce a

blown-up and fragmented rendition of this event. This work reflects Jafa’s interest in exploring and

re-contextualising particular historical narratives and news stories that have been subject to bias

against the Black community.

The confederate flag is widely considered a symbol of racial division in America. It first came

into use during the American Civil War, from 1861–5, which was triggered by the subject of

slavery. Seven southern US states rebelled over President Abraham Lincoln’s anti-slavery

legislation and declared withdrawal from the United States. The confederate flag was first used

as the battle flag by the army of Northern Virginia, and although not officially adopted by them,

it came to represent the Confederate States of America, or the dissenting states of the

American South. The flag has since maintained its charged history, being flown by Southern

militants during the Second World War and adopted by the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights

Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Today, for many Americans, the flag is a representation of

slavery, hatred and White supremacy.

For this exhibition, Jafa has appropriated the 13-star saltire confederate flag and rendered it in

black, hand-sewn fabric, its material and image becoming embedded with the ‘Blackness’ it is

symbolically and historically against. Behind it sits a blackened flag of the United States, its

image shrunken and shrouded in its obscured positioning.

Arthur Jafa,

Black Flag 2017

Hand-sewn flag

Arthur Jafa

Krazy Kat 2017

Printed acetate

Arthur Jafa,

Black American Flag 1.0 2017

Dyed flag

WEST PERIMETER

This is an image that Jafa took of a display at the Murambi memorial site of the Rwandan

genocide in 1994. It was here that 10,000 Rwandans who sought refuge at the technical school

were murdered by genocidal militias. All parts of Rwanda were victim to the atrocities

committed against the Tutsi and moderate Hutus by members of the Hutu majority

government during the Civil War (1990–4). This work, together with the confederate flag, reflect

Jafa’s interest in the artefacts and remnants of Black history and how these objects and

images can be re-presented and re-contextualised through display.

This archival photograph shows a group of African-American children at Whittier Primary

School in Hampton, Virginia, collectively saluting an American flag held up by a fellow

classmate. The image was taken in 1900, a time when the full force of racial segregation was in

effect in the wake of the American Civil War.

Arthur Jafa

Rwanda 1999

Digital C-print, printed 2017

Pledge of allegiance, 1848 2017

Wallpaper

Exhibition print copyright the Library of

Congress, Washington DC

This series of works by artist and sociologist, Frida Orupabo, is an extension of her Instagram

feed, @nemiepeba, a collection of written works, images and sounds that address ideas and

iconographies of Blackness, identity and heritage. Orupabo’s images are the result of collecting,

storing and working with found material, which is then rendered digitally via Instagram. The

artist describes this platformas a virtual space where she can challenge and deconstruct the

White gaze through an idiosyncratic visual language. As part of the exhibition, Orupabo has

given a small selection of her works three-dimensional form through cut-out figurines and

black and white photography. Content from @nemiepeba has also been incorporated by Jafa

into the videos displayed throughout the Gallery.

Arthur Jafa

Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio 2016

Wallpaper

Ming Smith

In the Wings, Padova, Italy, 1978

Gelatin silver print, printed 2017

Courtesy of the artist and Steven Kasher Gallery, New York

Frida Orupabo

Keeping it Together 2016-17

Collage with paper and pins

Courtesy of the artist

NORTH GALLERY

Picture books 1990–2005

Cut paper in plastic sleeves, bound in three-ring binders

Dimensions variable

Since the 1990s, Jafa has been assembling collections of images, which he arranges together in

series of picture books. Often bringing together images from disparate contexts, time frames

and histories, Jafa creates a renewed tension and energy by placing them in what artist and

filmmaker, John Akomfrah calls an ‘affective proximity’. For this exhibition, a selection of these

books has been reproduced as facsimiles for visitors to browse.

These two photographs were shot by Jafa on an early morning in South Los Angeles, capturing

sublimity in the sharp contrast of forms within the contemporary urban landscape.

Arthur Jafa

LA Haze I 2014


Arthur Jafa

LA Haze II 2014


Miles Reggie Lucas c. 1974


This archival photograph depicts the American musicians Miles

Davis and Reggie Lucas playing together in the early 1970s.

Between 1972 and 1976, Lucas played in Davis’ electric band,

alongside Pete Cosey, Michael Henderson, Al Foster and Mtume.

They were acknowledged as one of the most exciting and

ground-breaking bands of its time.

Arthur Jafa

Carry Out 2017

Printed acetate

Arthur Jafa

Horrid Massacre Virginia 2017

Printed acetate

EAST PERIMETER

Ming Smith

Lamentation in San Miguel Allende, San Miguel Allende, Mexico, 1977

Vintage gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1977

40.6 x 50.8 cm

Arthur Jafa

The Surge 2017

Wallpaper

Several of the photographic works in the exhibition focus on Jafa’s interest in contemporary

forms of portraiture and the prevalence ofthe White gaze in modes of capturing subjects via

film and photography. Jafa says that ‘if you point a camera at a Black person, on a

psychoanalytic level it functions as a White gaze...It doesn’t matter if a Black person is behind

the camera or not’.

From low-fi screenshots using FaceTime, where pixelated faces are held in place by the

iPhone’s digital symbology, to the abstract rhythmic movement of performing musicians, Jafa

presents a series of subjects frozen in exclamatory movements, eclipsed by flares of sunlight,

or directly returning the gaze of the camera lens.

Arthur Jafa

Monster 1989


Arthur Jafa

Sharifa 2016


Arthur Jafa

Facetime Unavailable 2016


Arthur Jafa

SRP Unavailable 2016


Arthur Jafa

Monster 1989


Arthur Jafa

LeRage 2017

Cut-out

Arthur Jafa

Monster II 2017

Cut-out

NORTH POWDER ROOM

A room in the Gallery is dedicated to a series of works by the American photographer, Ming

Smith. In a career spanning over forty years, Smith has become known for her informal, in-

action portraits of Black cultural figures, from Alvin Ailey to Nina Simone, a wide range of jazz

musicians, as well as capturing subjects throughout the streets of New York City.

Smith’s work is characterised by a unique understanding and use of low-light situations. The

instants that the artist captures often hover between a state of distortion and definition. Light,

form and motion become crystallised, resulting in images that are simultaneously abstract and

figurative. Smith describes each of her images as like a Haiku or Imagist poem, where a fleeting

moment in time is rendered through her own visual language of light and shade. The works on

display in the exhibition span the early 1970s to the 1990s and demonstrate the breadth of

Smith’s subject matter and technique. Several of these works have been revisited through the

artist’s act of painting directly onto the original photograph. This desire to re-work her images

highlights the significance of time and context within Smith’s practice and how lost moments

can be brought back to life in unexpected ways.

Frida Orupabo

Untitled 2016-17

Black and white photograph

Courtesy of the artist

Arthur Jafa

Slaver 2017

Printed acetate

Ming Smith

Untitled, New York, NY, c. 1981

Cibachrome print, printed c. 1981


Ming Smith




Ming Smith




Ming Smith

Untitled, New York, c. 1981

Cibachrome print

Courtesy of the artist and Steven Kasher Gallery,

New York

Ming Smith

Invisible Man No Border c. 1998



Ming Smith

Manhattan Parallels, New York, NY, c. 1972

Vintage gelatin silver print, printed c. 1972


Ming Smith

Sunday Morning Service, Father and Son, Abyssinia, Harlem,

NY, c. 1990



Ming Smith

August Blues (from the Invisible Man series), Harlem, NY, c. 1991

Unique gelatin silver print, printed c. 2000


Ming Smith

Mother and Child, Harlem, NY, 1977



New York

Ming Smith

Sun Breeze After the Bluing, Hoboken, NJ, c. 1972



Ming Smith

Sunday Service, Abyssinia, Harlem, NY, c. 1990



New York

Ming Smith

Amina and Amiri Baraka "Lovers", New York, NY, 1980



New York

Ming Smith

Abhortion, 32nd and Park, New York, NY, 1978



New York

Ming Smith

Family free time in the park, Atlanta, Georgia, 1982



New York

Ming Smith

Hart-Leroy Bibbs Casing the scene, Paris, France, 1980



Ming Smith

Flamingo Fandango, Berlin, West Germany, 1988

Painted gelatin silver print, printed c. 1988

Courtesy of the artist and Steven Kasher Gallery, New

York

Ming Smith

Sun Ra space II, New York, NY, 1978

Gelatin silver print, printed c. 2000

Courtesy of the artist and Steven Kasher Gallery, New

York

Ming Smith

Pool Player (From the August Wilson Series), c. 1993 Vintage

gelatin silver print, printed c. 1993


These two photographs were taken by Jafa of different musicians. With a subtle gesture to the

semi-abstracted and slow-take photographic style of Ming Smith, these images capture the

energy, movement and rhythm of the performing body.

Ming Smith

Lady and Child (From the August Wilson Series), c. 1993



Ming Smith

Untitled (Self-Portrait with Camera), New York, NY, c. 1975 Gelatin

silver print, printed 2017


Arthur Jafa

Grahm 2004


Arthur Jafa

Red Dragon 2004


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