Five Murmurations is London-based, Ghanaian-born artist John Akomfrah’s response to the global pandemic, murder of George Floyd, and worldwide protests in support of Black Lives Matter. It is a visual essay of our current times.

Moving across three screens, the artwork opens with details from Hieronymus Bosch’s oil painting The Conjurer (1502), in which the Dutch artist depicts how easily people are conned. Akomfrah then weaves together an extensive archive of images that mix iconic works of art with scenes shot and gathered in the globally fraught 18-month period between 2019 and 2021. The filmmaker combines what he calls “current emotional states”—sitting alone with one’s phone or staring out the window—with “states of emotions”—collective responses of protest or fear.

The result is five chapters, or “murmurations,” a term that describes the tight formation assumed by birds in flight to protect themselves from predators. Five Murmurations is accompanied by a soundscape that integrates haunting music with the calls of protestors, police recordings, and the final words of George Floyd.

John Akomfrah is an internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker and founding member of the influential Black Audio Film Collective. His works explore post-colonialism, diasporic experience, and memory, and have appeared in many venues around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival (2011, 2013) and the first Ghana Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019).

This exhibition has been curated by senior curator Karen E. Milbourne.

Akomfrah’s 6-channel film Purple (2017) addressing climate change is on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden through 2023.

Please be advised that the following video contains images and sounds that may be disturbing.