Work

The Douglas Hyde in partnership with The Form Foundation brought the Irish premiere of Arthur Jafa’s seminal work Love is the Message, The Message is Death, to Dublin and THINKHOUSE was honoured to be charged with spreading the message, about the screening, far and wide.

In Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) Jafa presents a poignant, visceral, and emotional reflection on African American life, identity, and history. Comprised of material largely taken from online sources, scenes of trauma, racism, and grief, such as routine police violence against Black people that is endemic to U.S. history, are presented alongside images of joy, defiance, and creativity, such as the performances of exceptional Black athletes, dancers, and musicians that are essential to the country’s identity.

Presented for the first time in Ireland, Love is The Message, The Message is Death, was a stark reminder of the persistence of racial injustice and oppression in the United States and across the globe, and continues to encourage audiences to question: what can we do next?

About the Artist

Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, Tupelo, Mississippi) is an artist, filmmaker and cinematographer. Across three decades, Jafa has developed a dynamic practice comprising films, artefacts and happenings that reference and question the universal and specific articulations of Black being. Underscoring the many facets of Jafa’s practice is a recurring question: how can visual media, such as objects, static and moving images, transmit the equivalent "power, beauty and alienation" embedded within forms of Black music in US culture?

About The Form Foundation

The Form Foundation is an organisation conceived to enrich Ireland’s public art offering. It has been established by Richard Bourke and Danielle Ryan. Danielle previously founded Dublin’s national theatre academy, The Lir, partnering with Trinity College Dublin and RADA London. After years involved in the art industry, the couple has forged links with some of the world’s most influential galleries. The Form Foundation will collaborate with Irish institutions to bring a selection of the most talked-about pieces of contemporary art to Ireland.

THINKHOUSE launched the exclusive Irish screening with a combination of paid, earned and owned media. Our PR activity resulted in online and print pieces in National and Regional publications resulting in a combined reach of almost 50,000 plus a reach of over 127,000 on social media.

Danielle Ryan, The Form Foundation.

“Setting up Form Foundation we had a challenging remit - to bring 2 different highly regarded international large-scale Public artworks into Ireland for the first time. THINKHOUSE dealt with this with energetic focus and creativity and also displayed the sensitivity required with such works. They are extremely responsive and went above and beyond the requirements. They were incredibly organised during the whole process and because of their extensive database of relationships we were able to target the exact audience for these pieces and create an organic buzz and excitement around the works”

For more from The Form Foundation check out http://www.theform.ie

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