Hidden Figures: Chakaia Booker (Patreon)

Hidden Figures: Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker (born in 1953 Newark, New Jersey) is an American artist. Booker is well known for her narrative-driven, environmental sculpture work that addresses the struggles and victories in human aspirations and involvement. Her work involves transforming found objects into expressive art that tackles racial, social and cultural issues as well as femininity. In addition to the tread patterns and repetitive geometric shapes, overall the tires characterize, symbolize, and or signify a toughness, linked to the will of the Black diaspora for continued survival. Her work has been described as “…call[ing] attention to slavery, industrial revolution, working class, factory labor and even addresses the qualities of rubber.” Chakaia Booker currently works and resides in New York City. Her artistic career has enabled her to be a part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Akron Art Museum, Cornell University's Johnson Museum of Art, The Max Protetch and June Kelly galleries in New York and others as well. 'Like her sculptures, Booker is a carefully assembled and richly layered individual who sees herself as a sculpture through her tasks of dressing, sewing, cooking, and other daily activities which she considers to be art forms in their own rights.’ Booker's work has layers and layers of meaning loaded with social concerns throughout. The sculptures which were created with the tires are said to address African American identity. The black tires symbolize the strength of African American identity while the color nuances are meant to evoke the complexities of the black humans application. She has stated: "The varying pigments ranging from blue-black, deep grey and brown, sometimes stamped with blue or red as well as textures- matte, smooth, glossy, cracked, game encrusted represent the range of African American skin tones… Salvaging such defiant beauty from scraps of resilient black, rubber [provides] a compelling metaphor of African American survival in the modern world.” #ChakaiaBooker #HiddenFigures ****************** Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! https://www.teepublic.com/user/sssseren Follow me on social media! Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu Personal Tumblr: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com Tumblr for my work: https://sssseren.tumblr.com Snapchat: sssseren GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/tc5wh7q Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seren_sensei ****************** Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture' Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6 Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6 Digital download (e-book): https://gumroad.com/l/IkUa ****************** Links: Chakaia Booker African American Art, Chicago's Millennium Park (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahW4_PzGd4k 'Artist Chakaia Booker Gives Tires a Powerful Retread:' https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/artist-chakaia-booker-gives-tires-powerful-retread-180957362/ Women in Art: Chakaia Booker http://www.melissahuang.com/2011/08/20/women-in-art-chakaia-booker/ A Conversation with Chakaia Booker: https://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag03/janfeb03/booker/booker.shtml Chakaia Booker: http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/galleries/chelsea/artists/chakaia-booker 'Chakaia Booker not treading lightly:' https://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2010/10/chakaia_booker_not_treading_li.html Chakaia Booker - National Museum of Women in the Arts: https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/chakaia-booker Chakaia Booker (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakaia_Booker