![]() ![]() It’s about arrival and survival through declaration of one’s hard-earned position in society. It is about establishing a new order in which black bodies seize and command cultural and physical spaces from which they have traditionally been excluded and are typically marginalized. To be sure, ‘Apeshit’ is all about bodies – an orchestrated contrast of energetically writhing and animated black physiques set against frozen white forms of the past. The video is an unapologetic visual and sonic manifesto about spaces, power, and control. ![]() ‘Apeshit’ is an arresting, and I would even go so far as to say brilliant video for what it does and does not do for what it reveals and conceals for the ways in which it meaningfully appropriates, exploits, and reinterprets Western paintings and sculptures as a way to chart and celebrate the Carters’s public and commercial success, and black bodies in an artistic canon inextricably linked to histories of colonialism. The video begins with fragments and close-ups of European paintings from the Louvre, a hallowed cultural space where masterpieces of European culture and civilization are housed, where imperial and colonial might through conquest and acquisition are put on grand display. For Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z, the measured exploitation of these things through high art and popular culture is best witnessed in ‘Apeshit,’ a track and accompanying 6-minute video from their first joint album called Everything is Love. ![]() Distracted by the couple's lit OTR II tour, fans didn't see Beyoncé and JAY-Z's surprise album Everything Is Love coming when it dropped on Saturday, June 16.Spanning the terrain from high art to popular culture and everything in-between, the complexity of race, gender, and culture continues to dog us. To no one's surprise, the album's debut video "Apesh*t" is breaking the internet as we speak. A major part of the video's appeal comes from the gorgeous and loaded imagery provided by its Louvre Museum setting. On Monday, a Louvre spokesperson explained how Bey and Jay locked down the location to Vulture. Maybe fans should've seen this coming for a while now, because hints about a Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Louvre-set music video have been lingering for years. In it, the power couple stands strong and united in front of "The Mona Lisa," rap in front of an Egyptian sphinx, and Beyoncé and a group of black women poetically dance in front of "The Coronation of Napoleon." That's in addition to the rest of the iconic artwork that appears throughout the video. Now, obviously JAY-Z and Beyoncé looking at art at the museum would be a really boring music video (though I would love to be a fly on the wall to overhear their conversation about the Mona Lisa. In this case, not even over a few months.Īnd it's clear this concept wasn't created overnight. April 2008: On April 4, Beyoncé and Jay-Z marry in a super-private ceremony at Jays apartment. As the Louvre spokesperson pointed out, Bey and Jay visited the historical Paris museum four times in the last 10 years. No photos are released of the event, but wedding videos later appear in footage for the 'On the Run. They reportedly presented their idea for the "Apesh*t" video to the establishment during a visit they had - wait for it - last May.īut this goes even further back. Fans may recall that in 2014, Bey and Jay seemingly rented out the museum (as the Carters would be expected to), and they shared a bunch of photos from their experience.īey put up a peace sign with "The Mona Lisa," posed with a statue, and shared a photo of Blue having a ball at the Louvre too. “The deadlines were very tight but the Louvre was quickly convinced because the synopsis showed a real attachment to the museum and its beloved artworks," they said.Įven though Bey and Jay seem to have been brewing up this idea for years now, it was actually a tight turnaround for the Louvre team, according to its spokesperson. ![]() Beyoncé and Jay-Z commemorated their massive 200 million mansion purchase with a pricey dinner in London on Friday night. And who would deny the king and queen?īut the "Apesh*t" video does much more than give Beyoncé and JAY-Z some gorgeous and historic backdrops. The couple was photographed leaving Harry’s Bar in. As proven by the lyrics (such as, "I can't believe we made it/Have you ever seen the crowd goin' apesh*t?"), the song reinforces their place and influence in society. The artwork is just another powerful vehicle in getting the message across.Ī Rolling Stone article titled "How Beyoncé and JAY-Z Defy Western Art Tradition in 'Apesh*t' Video" discusses how the couple stake their claim among mostly white art by white artists. Many of the pieces in The Louvre (and that have made throughout history), as the article points out, have defined white European culture. However, "Apesh*t" makes a point to spotlight non-white images in the museum and highlight their significance. ![]()
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