Kahlil Joseph

Kahlil Joseph creates films and video installations that disrupt linear narratives with a unique treatment of both sound and music used as materials to generate lyricism and complexity. In addition to his artistic practice, Joseph currently serves on the board of The Underground Museum alongside his family, carrying on the vision of his brother, the late Noah Davis.

Joseph’s current focus is the ongoing enterprise BLKNWS®, an artwork and a conceptual business project. Originally conceived as a television program, BLKNWS® operates under the unique practice of “conceptual journalism” to present an uninterrupted, highly curated broadcast that highlights the vastness of the Black experience with sources from social media, popular culture, and actual news footage. During Made in L.A. 2020, two-channel video presentations of BLKNWS® are being hosted in satellite sites across the city—predominantly in Black-owned businesses such as barbershops and cafés and in other sites of community gathering, as well as in commercial hubs and healthcare facilities—and are anchored by a large-scale projection at the Hammer Museum. Breaking from exhibition conventions, in which an artwork might remain unchanged during the run of the show, a team of BLKNWS® editors and contributors constantly work to remix and update the broadcast in real time, pushing new programming to all satellites throughout the exhibition to create a fugitive network that upends established media expectations and calls into question what we deem to be newsworthy and authoritative.

The citywide presentation of BLKNWS® is coproduced by the Hammer Museum and LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) for Made in L.A. 2020. Major support is provided by Aubrey Drake Graham.

Production support for this presentation of BLKNWS® is provided by Apple Music.

In Made in L.A. 2020: a version, the artist’s work is present in two institutions, across Los Angeles. See Kahlil Joseph's work on view at The Huntington.

BLKNWS® locations in Los Angeles:

Socially Distant Viewing

Bloom & Plume Coffee, 1638 W. Temple St., Los Angeles 90026
Go Get ’Em Tiger, 5916 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park 90042
Hank’s Mini Market, 3301 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles 90043
Natraliart Jamaican Restaurant, 3426 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles 90018
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles 90048.
Total Luxury Spa, 5017 W. Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles 90016
Patria Coffee Roasters, 108 Alameda St., Compton 90221
Sole Folks, 4317 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles 90008
Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, 4427 W. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles 90043
Union, 110 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles 90036

Appointment Based Viewing

Touched By An Angel / SON. Studio, 3733 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles 90018
Hollywood Bureau, 1654 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles 90028
St. John's Well Child & Family Center, 4251 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles 90008
The Underground Museum, 3508 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018

A photograph of two videos projected side-by-side against a black wall that takes up two-thirds of the image. The carpet in the lower third of the photograph is blue.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–. Installation view, Hammer Museum

Image of a narrow, shotgun room with a wooden bookshelf on the right populated with books and creamy, white couch on the left. At the backwall is a wallpaper of a black and white photograph of women with rifles. There are two television screens in the middle of the wall with news footage.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Photo looking inside a room with purple wall and slanted roof. Against the purple wall are two video monitors with BN letters in white displayed on the left and a man n white tshirt on the right. In the room hats and a tshirt are displayed on shelving.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Photograph of a coffee shop. To the left of the shop is an outdoor seating area that is sectioned off with black stanchions. Above this seating area are two video monitors affixed to a wood beam. The left screen has the letters BLK in white against a black background, the right screen has a close crop on person's face looking upwards with their two arms raised upwards; there are purple lights behind them. The coffee shop exterior is split into three tiers, with a window into the cafe in the middle.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Photograph showing inside of a grocery store, with low shelving. On the back wall the words "Stronger Together" are written in orange cursive. Below this a black and white photographic mural, with two video monitors mounted over top.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Photograph of a corner of a large room with many framed images on the walls. The walls are white. The corner of the room is in the center of the photograph and two dark doors are on either side of the corner. Above the doors are two video monitors with white letters BLK and NES on each monitor.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Image of a room with shelving on the left wall and on the right wall, a large black and white photomural of many people in white clothes, lined up for a group portrait. On top of the mural two video monitors are hung. The right video monitor is black, and the left one says "THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME"

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Image of the inside of a store, with a brick wall in the back, with clothing and hats on display. Above the display two video monitors are mounted on the brick wall. with images of people and, on the right monitor, the letters BLK NWS.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Image of the inside of coffee shop. One person in a sweater and baseball cap waits in line in the far left of the image and another person stands at the counter. To their left, a wall lined with five paintings. The wall behind the paintings is dark blue. Above that there is a wallpaper with an archival image of six black men on horses and one black man standing in front of them. Two video monitors are on top of the wallpaper. Left screen has four women standing together, right has words BLKNWS in white.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Photograph of room with the walls covered in white, square ceramic tiles. Two square ottoman to the right of the image are also covered in similar tile. The carpet in bottom half of image is navy blue. There are two small navy blue ottomans side by side. Above them on the tile wall are two video monitors with the letters BLK on left screen and NWS on right screen. The letters are in white with a black background.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS®, 2018–

Biography

Kahlil Joseph was born in 1981 in Seattle. Early on, he earned his spurs working for the photographer Melodie McDaniel and the movie director Terrence Malick. Joseph creates films and video installations that disrupt linear narratives with a particular treatment of music, used both as a material and as a model of lyricism and complexity. Joseph’s practice scrambles the conventional approach to and understanding of video: his films quote the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky and Chris Marker and feature pop culture icons and underground heroes alike. Joseph’s current focus is the ongoing project BLKNWS®, an artwork and functioning business established as a way to redefine how Black culture is experienced, viewed, and communicated. BLKNWS® starts from the postulate that anything can be “news” that is new to someone. Originally conceived as a television program, it presents an uninterrupted—though highly edited—stream of images focusing on African American life, including YouTube videos, amateur film footage, internet memes, Instagram stories, and actual news clips. The work operates through a network of highly skilled editors and fugitive journalists—constantly updating the stream—whom Joseph hires and supports, forming a sort of BLKNWS® academy that reflects his interest in community-driven process. Joseph’s work with BLKNWS® was included in May You Live in Interesting Times at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019) and in the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, Geneva (2018). His short film Fly Paper debuted as part of his 2017 solo exhibition at the New Museum, New York. Other exhibitions include those at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands (2017); Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2016); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2015). Joseph currently serves as the creative director of the Underground Museum alongside his family, carrying out the vision of his brother, the late Noah Davis.

Biography

Related Program

Lunchtime Art Talk on Kahlil Joseph