Mo Laudi #RIPMoLaudi, 2020 Digital collage, color, sound, 1min Courtesy of the artist. The year is 2099 Another documentary of slain black bodies Lullaby of a freedom fighter Will this be how I die Just another hashTAG Diaspora SOS the motherland The stress compressed Social media scrolls Nunorm reality déjavu Stanza Bopape in the Komati river Emmett Till’s corpse in Tallahatchie Truth and fiction dance Hashtags and slogans Archives of tragedies Dismantling trauma #ExfoliateToxicSystems Who will cry Will my life have mattered Will black bodies matter What would have changed Erased, deleted from the future Stuck in a time loop??? There is something wrong with the system. I was moved to tears finding out about Ahmaud Arbery, Joao Pedro Yet another instance of police killing an unarmed black men. It reminded me of apartheid days in South Africa when black bodies were constantly executed. Our reality was systematic brutality. And now George Floyd… not being able to breathe took me back to Eric Garner and so many other horror stories. In this fictional work – a short edited collage of found and personal footage – I am killed by the police in the future. This connects a protest and a tribute to all those shot while going about their daily peaceful lives as well as to those fighting for our freedom in South Africa, the US and all diasporas. In the sound work I created, the 808 Sub Bass is a shout-out to Hip Hop, a 1970s arpeggiator meets soothing cellos. The multivocal tone singing I perform is reminiscent of a choir at political funerals: each vocal range comes out of a different speaker creating a surround sound effect. It is through participatory singing that the collective healing effect happens, like a lullaby with the calming effect needed after struggle. @intervals_collective credits directed by Mo Laudi Composed by Mo Laudi Vocals by Mo Laudi edited by Mo Laudi contains clips from, #newsclips, #YouTube, #instagram, #EmmettTill #weonlykillblackpeople #NelsonMandelaspeech, #MalcomX , #RodneyKing beatings, #futuretensecall #afrofuturism #panafricanism , #RobertSebukwe #policebrutality #ericgarner #icantbreathe #georgefloyd #ahmaudarbery #change #art #covid19art #artcovid19 #africanamericanart #blackart #blacklivesmatter #changeisgoingtocome #riots #savelives https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0DGgKgP5-/?igshid=1ihqe655lkmjb
