2023-2024
5:33
A found footage film interspliced with recordings of an original poem, the videos include Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral, scenes from the black kung fu movie called Besouro, about niggas in Brazil beatin up colonizers using the martial art capoeira, and most notably clips from the Montgomery river front brawl, a viral event where this black guy was recorded beating up rowdy white people with a folding chair, that way too many memes came from.
Im thinking about death, Im thinking about memes, Im thinking about what it means to be black, to be on the internet, and what it means to be black on the internet. We live in a time where it seems like exhaustion and disposability are at an all time high.
I made this responding to how I felt at a specific time, the following is a conversation about the film with my long time friend Alex H.
AG: I have an explanation I just never felt like writing it down, wanted to be more “intuitive” come to your own conclusion type beat.
AH: Just watched.
It’s powerful in a number of ways, but first I’ll say that this is the best form of confrontation with the ideals of Dr. King that I’ve seen. It’s done in a respectful way, highlighting the impact of his death, but how sort of unrealistic or should I saw idealistic his vision and perception of non violence was. Live by the sword die by the sword? But he never picked up a sword to begin with. Still died anyways. As will we. There’s a tone that suggests “see?”.
AG: I tried to tap this idea that I been thinking about a lot, about how these canonized, almost mythical black figures that people are almost afraid to disagree with.
And being like no, you can disagree with them and still hold them up and love them, and challenging the philosophy of dr king with this admittedly somewhat cynical idea that violence and nonviolence, either that you choose ultimately end with the same result. But at the same time I feel like anyone that ever achieved anything great had to be idealistic, having to be able to imagine a world, an “ideal” that doesn’t exist.
AH: There’s also this element of sensationalization of said violence in our culture. Which is obvious but when juxtaposed with imagery of the tail end of the civil rights movement illustrated this idea of a continuation. Or is it a shift in the plot? Before and after? During?
AG: tried to create this “art object” that kind of mirrored black twitter, or this “idea” of black twitter, thinking about the specific cultural context that you’d need to fully grasp this piece, to be “in” on the joke. These “memes” that if you blink and you miss it, memes as flash in the pan, passing cultural moments that leave lasting real life consequences after they fall out of cycle. Like for instance how the nigga that was beating people with the chair ended up having to go to court.
AH:Your words. Echo to me this sort of statement about the inevitable. And how the “black body” is in a state of constant war.
AG: Yeaaaa, like between being overworked and put in boxes (literally and figuratively) for hundreds of years, to being objectified, beaten, exploited, from the body physically, to the body culturally, even the term black body in art, it echoes a lot of sentiments of black people as objects, we dont use the term bodies to refer to living people, we use it to refer to the dead, white people never even have to think about their bodies, there’s no equivalent term “white bodies”.
AH: Or preparation even. Maybe that aspects just personal to you, but it’s felt. There also this sort of mirroring effect. Are our actions and present times the result of our history, or are we continually perpetuating a narrative.. or are we embodying this narrative unwillingly, in our struggle AGAINST violence.
AG: I think something that we have lost in terms of black people in the modern era, is almost like “black self awareness”, the ability to look at our own community and criticize constructively, but at the same time with respect given to the varied experiences of how black people live, often not by choice, there’s a balance, and yea like where we are is not our fault, but where we take ourselves is our choice, white ppl messed us up but its up to niggas to save niggas.
AH: This word comes to mind: epilogue, So yeah it’s interesting man. For a 5 minute video very impactful. Proud of you brother. You inspire me to be greater.
AG: I try to be very too the point you feel.
Thank you my brother, love you, you inspire me also, you create in a freer state than just about anyone else ive ever seen, its intuitive, like an open public aesthetic investigation, like people trip and hesitate over one post, but you’ve already posted three times while they were tryna decide, you show seemingly all sides and versions of something and thats impacted me a lot.
Like niggas don’t have to settle on one outcome. And with this piece I like the idea of leaving people with more questions than answers.
AH: I feel like you’re kind of a journalist.
AG: honestly thats the best compliment I never knew i needed for real.