The Conductor (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi)

Rashaad Newsome's body of work examines the visual language of power and status, juxtaposing high and low references to challenge perceived notions of social protocol and hierarchy. Sampling heavily from hip-hop and pop culture, he selects and appropriates a disparate array of visual components, restructuring them into recognizable statements and symbols.

This video is the final movement in a six-part opera, "The Conductor", a montage of video clips from hip hop's most epic emcees, set to the epic choral music of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." This movement tracks the hand gestures of hip hop artists and isolates them in an abstraction that explores the genre's visual language.

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Curated by Times Square Arts