akingdoncomethas
2018
Arthur Jafa
American, born 1960
Contemporary Art
Arthur Jafa’s akingdoncomethas is composed of a series of clips, sourced from the internet, of pastors delivering sermons as well as singers and choirs performing gospel songs for their respective congregations. Jafa uses light editing to isolate shared narratives and performative gestures. The film portrays a culture of deep faith, healing, and perseverance that offers messages of resistance and staying the course. Through Jafa’s sequencing, the viewer gets a sense of the ethics of the Black Christian (Pentecostal) church as well as its aesthetics—the undulation of voices, the slow-build tempo of testimony, the wail, the scream, and mellow moments of reflection. The viewer is left with an awareness of not only what constitutes a church program but also how it feels—and a sense that perhaps it is this feeling that matters most.
- Maker/Artist
- Jafa, Arthur
- Classification
- Media
- Formatted Medium
- Video, color, sound, 1 hour 41 minutes
- Departments
- Contemporary Art
- Accession Number
- 2018.22
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Contemporary Art Committee and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund
- Exhibitions
- Art on the Stoop: Sunset Screenings, The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time
- Rights Statement
- © artist or artist's estate
- Museum Location
- This item is not on view
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