The Western transition from the oral tradition to literacy marked the birth of hyperindividualism and the isolated point of view. Communication no longer requires intercorporeality or the physical presence of the ‘other’. Information is consumed individually in private, visual space– from the outside.
In order to analyze an American image, one must analyze American images: lucid explorations of conflict, hardship, selfhood, merriment, strife, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death" tasks audiences with witnessing a strategically curated assemblage of a checkered U.S. history of police brutality, promotions of church gospel, distilled expressions of dejection, perseverance for social change, beatific song and dance, and other acts of Black performativity and expressivity in all its awesome variety.
To those of us who lived in Europe at the time, photos of Independence Square were immediately recognizable. They represented shared wounds and terrifying possibilities for the near future.