Article:

«Dear White People»? Notizen zu Arthur Jafas Black Cinema und Fragen der Adressierung

Prompted by an exhibition of the Afro-American filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa, whose works are dedicated to a repertoire of images and sounds rooted in black experience, the article reflects on their ‹fascinating› effect on a white recipient (i.e. the author). It discusses how Jafa’s films – and in this case especially the video installation Apex (2013) – negotiate fascination itself as a configuration of seeing and being seen, in which the ‹color› of the gaze makes a difference. As an intervention into the media construction of race, Jafa’s black cinema provides audiovisual talking points when it comes to challenging the supposed neutrality of whiteness, and thus its privilege.