Rashid Johnson
Rashid Johnson
Rashid Johnsonis an African-American socio-political photographer who produces conceptual post-black art. Johnson first received critical attention when examples of his work were included in the exhibition "Freestyle," curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001—when he was 24. He has studied at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited around the world and he is held in collections of many of the world's leading art museums...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
CountryUnited States of America
art artists embodied gave mean
I don't have any other skills. Some artists say that to mean that their embodied passion for art gave them no choice. I say it, very specifically, to say that I really didn't have any other options.
african blocks born chicago father finishing history moved north parents side soon three time
I was born in Evanston, about three blocks away from the Chicago border. My mother, at the time, was finishing her Ph.D. in African History at Northwestern University. Soon after my birth, my parents split, and my father moved to Wicker Park, which is on the north side of the city.
bring calling employs krauss life mediums order several specific suffer whatever
I say that I suffer from what Rosalind Krauss was calling the post-medium condition, where an artist essentially employs several mediums in order to bring to life whatever specific ideas that they have. For me it's always been that way.
goes historical middle toward
My composition often goes toward the black middle class or the black super-wealthy or strong historical black figures.
hoped relationship work
What I really hoped to do with my work was to at least be able to define my relationship to race.
aspects bodies informs investment marks material understanding work
I have an investment in the signifying aspects of the material as well as an understanding of antecedent bodies of work. That informs the way I make marks and make decisions.
allegiance display growing home jesus panther particular radical type
Growing up in Chicago, there was a very particular type of home that would display the black Jesus figure. It wasn't a radical home. You wouldn't find these in a Black Panther house. There's still a strong allegiance to Christianity.
begun build carrying collect floor piles realized run talking turned vehicle walls
I'd begun to collect things that were lying in piles on the floor of my studio. I had run out of space, and I started to build shelves. I turned around one day and realized that that was the vehicle for carrying so many of the things that I was looking at and talking about, so they went from the walls to the works.
artists feeling function learning thirst work
When I was young, I remember feeling a real thirst for opportunities around the arts, for learning about how artists function and how institutions work.
butter hairstyles interested music people sold themselves
When I was younger, I would see shea butter being sold on the street, and I was interested how people were still coating themselves in the theater of Africanism. You see that in dashikis and hairstyles and music.
black challenge characters famous gravity jumping people presented remember
When I was younger, I remember there was a really famous book, and it was called 'The People Could Fly.' And so this idea of, kind of like, black characters kind of jumping into space and kind of the challenge that they presented to gravity I thought was really interesting.
anyone brick cell communication grew laboratory
My father had a big brick cell phone, before anyone had a cell phone, because he was really just into that kind of thing - communication devices. I grew up between my father's laboratory and my mother's library.
band owned radio repair
My father owned a small company, called Gundel Electronics, where he did community band radio and some repair stuff.
I started rereading 'The Dutchman' - I kind of just pulled it off the shelf.