A memorial to the tragedy of George Floyd.

George Floyd should be seen everywhere. AmericanGods_250520 is an artwork that immortalises the tragedy of George Floyd by aligning it directly to popular American black culture, specifically the forces of music, film and fashion, while drawing parallels with the Black-British experience - including deaths caused by police abuse of power, illustrated in the film by a roll call of UK victims.

In black culture, and hip-hop, it is common for tragic deaths to be memorialised by the printing of commemorative t-shirts that celebrate the life of the departed and memorialise the tragedy of their passing, searing the image of the departed and the circumstance of their death into our collective memory. Where the cause of death is murder, wearing a t-shirt with the face of the dead is appropriately confrontational - you do not ask for permission from the viewer before putting it before them. It forces the viewer to empathise with the wearer and their history or position.

Fight the Power (1988), Public Enemy’s influential resistance anthem and collaboration with Spike Lee, mobilised the power of cinema to give their message maximum reach. When describing Public Enemy’s strategy towards producing meaningful work, Chuck D, the band’s frontman, argued that 

"music and art and culture is escapism, and escapism sometimes is healthy for people to get away from reality", 

but when the distinction is blurred these forms of expression have the capacity to

“lead a young mind in a direction”.

AmericanGods_250520 takes its lead from this cinematic hip-hop culture which viscerally tales the complexity of black history in the pursuit of an alternative future. 

AmericanGods_250520 probes ideas concerned with conflict, permission, power, idols, entertainment and resistance. The video artwork pairs footage of George Floyd’s murder with a sequence of music from Kanye West’s Yeezus album. Kanye is much maligned for his contrary comments on race and slavery yet no artist better incapsulates the societal and personal conflict of America and Americans - the inferiority and exploitation, their superiority and success. The sequence of music is a reductive, traumatised, trance-like composition filled with screams of frustration, angst and turbulence. The cries of “I am a God” and the image of George’s murder call into question ‘who is omnipotent’? 

Kanye proclaims himself a God. The enduring depiction of the dead within the artwork frames George as God, while his life was ended by a man who saw fit to play God.

This juxtaposition questions who we as a society cherish as deities. Alongside Kanye West at the top of American black and popular culture is Jay-Z, whose era defining concert Fade to Black (2003) is canonised in a documentary of the same name. Fade to Black is a relentless show-reel of great American black artists who contributed to both the performance and the formation of Jay-Z’s associated studio album. 

The concert features a number of guest performances including a seminal contribution by Beyonce whose flare, composure, intelligence and power are a testament to the brilliance of black people. And so, alongside footage of George’s death and subsequent protests, AmericanGods_250520 runs segments of this performance - a counterpoint of talent and skill framed against the rudimentary brutality of a hateful murder. 

A standout moment of the documentary depicts an interaction between Jay-Z and Kanye West, where Jay-Z  (whose alternative moniker J-Hova is a play on the word Jehovah - the Hebrew word for God) seems to be proclaiming Kanye as the prodigal son. In this scene Jay-Z is recognising Kanye’s capacity, at an early moment in his career,  to develop into the idol he has today become. But respect for these two American gods differs wildly; Jay-Z is hailed as the role model drug-dealer turned successful billionaire, whilst Kanye is considered a tortured artist who has lost his way. However, within the black community globally, both are considered icons and the tension between these contradictory personalities, and projected black culture in general, is explored within AmericanGods_250520 through imagery depicting both brilliant control and brilliant chaos.

Fade to Black, took place at Madison Square Garden, the great modern day cathedral of America. The concert is a sermon. Those on stage are at once preacher, priest, pope and pastor. The concert was to commemorate Jay-Z’s “retirement”, his departure from this world - only for him to return at a later date with, arguably, more soul. 

Jay-Z performs in a tribute T-shirt to The Notorious B.I.G, the influential New York rapper murdered in 1997.  In this moment Jay-Z is giving The Notorious B.I.G ‘Life After Death’, an apt biblical reference in a contemporary house of God. And in this house of God, black people are reborn. 

This includes Micheal Jordan, who also “retired” under the same roof, only to be resurrected as the greatest basketball player of all time, whose recent Netflix documentary is a backdrop to current events. In a cultural context, in which the black community are encouraged to worship black gods, these men returned to write new chapters of history… and in this great hall Kanye launched The Life of Pablo (2016), his follow up album to Yeezus (2013), in which he proclaimed himself as Pablo Picasso reincarnated. 

However fallible, these popular icons are our saints, stripped of their profile and wealth, they are liable to suffer the same fate as George Floyd and other black Americans - a defining characteristic is still the colour of their skin.

At a time when political leaders frame their actions in defence of God, AmericanGods_250520 seeks to canonise George Floyd alongside the other black American icons of this particular moment.

Jay-Z said 

“the only way we can continue… is [if] we pay respect to the past. So I had to pay respect to the past so I could continue onto the future.”

As such, AmericanGods_250520 is a montage of past and recent cultural exposure which pays tribute to, and processes, the transatlantic relationship between America and the UK in order to advocate for an alternative future. 

The motif of the black square risks fading the memory of George Floyd. By aligning his murder to the imagery of other black icons, AmericanGods_250520 mirrors hip-hop’s influential tales of hardship and criminality, debauchery and celebration. Like the other American gods of his generation George is due a second coming. To ensure this happens, the complexity of his story must be retold in every way possible.

#Justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter