ARTHUR JAFA, APEX, 2013
Video (color, sound), 8:22 min.
“Jafa has asked, at what scale should we consider the lives of Black Americans? For over thirty years—starting while he worked as a cinematographer—Jafa has compiled notebooks with clippings from a broad array of sources. His notebooks, facsimiles of which are on view nearby, are repositories of references and ideas that serve as reminders of the depth and beauty of Black life in America. While each image is drawn from a particular context, together they convey the shared vocabularies and collaborative procedures the artist considers central to Black cultural production. In the immersive video APEX, Jafa organizes a fast-paced sequence of images. Set to a driving soundtrack of electronic club beats, APEX creates pairings and contrasts whereby heroes and villains, history and present all become enmeshed in what Jafa has termed “spooky entanglements.” - MoMA