Arthur Jafa. Love is the Message, The Message is Death, 2016. Detail of video still. Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone, Sprüth Magers, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. © Arthur Jafa.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Barnes Foundation presents Freedom Dreams, an exhibition of powerful works in film, video, and installation by an intergenerational cohort of Black artists interested in exploring history, archives, and cultural memory. The exhibition features works by Arthur Jafa, David Hartt, Garrett Bradley, Ja’Tovia Gary, and Tourmaline that dismantle pervasive narratives around race, gender, and class in American history. Co-curated by James Claiborne, Fleischner Family Vice President for Engagement at the Barnes, and Maori Karmael Holmes, Chief Executive and Artistic Officer of BlackStar Projects, Freedom Dreams marks the first occasion these works will be presented at a museum in Philadelphia.
Exploring Black American history and identity, Freedom Dreams offers an opportunity to interrogate the complex histories of the United States in relationship to the identities and legacies the featured artists bring to light through their work. Resilience, resistance, and Black joy are present within the exhibition across all works in varying measures. Philadelphia, the birthplace of the nation, is not only central to the United States’s upcoming 250th anniversary in July but also the ideal location for this exhibition, dedicated to exploring the freedom and potential in liberatory imagination…