Boxer Rebellion, 2020
Information about the artwork
- MaterialMetal rail, steel pipes, chains, fabric
- Dimensions177.8 x 162.6 x 100.3 cm
- Year of acquisition2021
- Inventory numberUAB 1282
- On viewCurrently not exhibited
More about the artwork
A common feature of the practice of the American artist, cinematographer, and filmmaker Arthur Jafa is that he takes various materials—found objects or appropriated images and video clips—from their respective contexts and relates them to one another. The artist’s works bear witness to Jafa’s intense preoccupation with colonialism, racism, and Black identity. “Boxer Rebellion” (2020) is part of a series of sculptures in which the artist combines “hard” industrial materials such as black metal rails, steel pipes and chains with “soft” fabrics. Despite, or perhaps because of its formal restraint, the work evokes associations with cruel enslavement, torture, or a game of submission and domination. The title alludes to the Shaw Brothers’ 1976 kung fu film of the same name, which revolves around the legendary martial artists’ movement in Beijing and how they rebelled against Western imperialism around 1900.
