ART CITIES:Moscow-Rashid Johnson
Rashid Johnson is a sculptor and photographer who works in a wide range of everyday media. He finds inspiration in the work of a diverse group of visual artists, actors, musicians, writers, activists, and philosophers. Johnson’s work engages questions of personal, racial, and cultural identity, producing a unique synthesis of historical and material references that are grounded in African American and art history while expanding into questions of mysticism and cosmology.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Garage Museum Archive
For his first project in Russia, Rashid Johnson is turning Moscow’s Garage Museum into a hothouse, blending Soviet Modernist architecture with the vegetation covered structures the artist encountered Turks and Caicos Islands. The installation “Within Our Gates” is an ecosystem in the atrium of the Museum composed of tropical plants as well as sculptures, sound and film. Constructed as a maze-like environment for all the senses, “Within Our Gates” integrates tropical plants such as palms, dracaenas, ficus, and ferns, with sculptural elements, moving image, sound, and everyday objects to immerse the viewer in the artist’s poetic manifestation of a world where fictions and facts, histories and speculations converge. His first project in Russia, this is also the largest work the artist has ever made. Rashid Johnson first visited Moscow in early 2015, when the Museum was under construction. He was visually inspired by the Soviet Modernist architecture. This triggered memories of a visit the exhibition “Turks and Caicos”, where unfinished edifices were overrun by the tropical landscape. Says Johnson: “It was when the place was full of anticipation, but the buildings were never finished and it looked to me like this incredible, deformed dream. There are a lot of different ways to interpret that, but it’s the contradictions that I keep thinking about in relation to the new work I’m making for Moscow, which will keep growing and changing over the time it is on show”. The installation of started two weeks prior to the launch of the commission and were publicly visible throughout, enabling visitors to witness the process of creating the work. From the launch onward an 11-hour film screening, curated by the artist, is accessible daily inside the installation.
Info: Garage Museum Of Contemporary Art, 9/32 Krymsky Val, Moscow, Duration: 17/3-31/8/16, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-22:00, http://garagemca.org
