The art of American artist Rindon Johnson has its roots in language and fluency in the media. In a new work, currently on view at SculptureCenter New York, which will soon open in Chisenhale, London, Johnson covers a wide range of topics, from the artist’s identity as a black trans-American, to the environmental crisis. and the space between real and virtual realities. Through sculpture, installation, poetry, writing, virtual reality cinema and painting, the artist probes the very core of belonging.
The Law of Large Numbers: Our Johnson bodies comprise custom sculptures, rawhide works, and video dominating the galleries on the ground floor, lobby, and outdoor spaces of SculptureCenter, New York.
This is a great year for Johnson. In November 2021, the artist will open the complementary exhibition “Law of Large Numbers: Our Selves,” at the Chisenhale Gallery in London, which includes reconfigured and additional works. A new publication with original text by the artist accompanies both shows.
Rindon Johnson: “Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies,” installation view, SculptureCenter, New York, 2021. Photography: Kyle Knodell
In large-scale sculpture, Coeval Proposal no. 1: demolish it to make it flat with the ground or the * Trans America building Dismantling EVERYTHING, Johnson refers to the Transamerica Pyramid of San Francisco, a landmark of the city. The concrete, steel, and glass of the building with a facade covered with crushed white quartz have been reinvented into reclaimed sequoia and ebonized or darkened. As Johnson writes, this process allowed me to “see myself more easily reflected in the building which, by name and location, reflects my trans identity (I share a name): my skin is brown, almost almost black with some light “.
We spoke with Johnson about the fusion of language and art, the power of science fiction, and the inspiration behind the new shows.
Rindon Johnson, Coeval Proposal no. 2: Last year’s Atlantic or looks great, seems to have acted as if nothing had ever happened or a weakening, 2021. Real-time portrait animation program, projectors, platform, computer. SculptureCenter, New York and Chisenhale Gallery, London Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Kyle Knodell
Wallpaper *: Your practice ranges from writing, sculptures to paintings, videos, installations and RV. Language also plays an integral role; when did your fascination begin and which writers have been the main influencers?
Rindon Johnson: I started weaving it into my visual practice around 2016 and more seriously in 2017, pushing my titles to acquire more space and substance. It was also at the same time that I took my poetic writing more seriously, beginning to think about what was possible between poem and sculpture.
There are many writers who have influenced me: Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Lyn Hejinian. In the work of Saidiya Hartman, I am very curious and excited about the possible project of speculative fiction and collective imagination that he presents Venus in two acts. So there are two currents about what fiction can do for us and its interpretation, especially in science fiction. I think we can imagine our future, so science fiction is a great place to start creating another desirable world.
Rindon Johnson, Coeval Proposal no. 2: Last year’s Atlantic or looks great, seems to have acted as if nothing had ever happened or a weakening, 2021. Real-time portrait animation program, projectors, platform, computer. SculptureCenter, New York and Chisenhale Gallery, London Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Kyle Knodell
W *: “Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies” marks your first solo museum exhibition. What does this mean for you and what was the hardest part of developing it?
RJ: Technically it’s my first solo museum show in the United States, but I had a show at the Julia Stoschek collection in Dusseldorf in 2019; this was my first solo show. I feel happy to have an exhibition at SculptureCenter. There are many people who have been offered this opportunity to whom I look forward. I feel very honored to get to dialogue with them in this way. And working with a space like SculptureCenter and Chinsenhale and seeing what I can offer as my contribution to the history of these two spaces that have offered open platforms for artists like me for a long time and have done it in a wonderful way and exciting.
As for the most challenging part of program development, it is always difficult to develop a program, whatever the time, but it was difficult not to be able to follow the usual parameters. There was no visit to the IRL site possible and it occurred in a year that felt very intense for reasons we all know. I received this amazing email from someone telling me “the circumstance we’re all in” and I think that’s true, so given the circumstance we’re all in, it was harder than an alternate reality version of mine I’d found without the pandemic.
Rindon Johnson: “Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies,” installation view, SculptureCenter, New York, 2021. Photography: Kyle Knodell
I think the challenge is always translation, leaving room for continuous translation. It seems to me that a good sample of art should have a continuous mind in the viewer’s mind, so that even when the show falls, it continues to grow, change, and change just as the viewer grows, changes, and changes. .
W *: What inspired the title of the show?
RJ: Inspired feels bad, but the title of the program was informed by the rarity of the term, specifically in finance, when a company grows exponentially, eventually the company will begin to devour itself. Finally, there is only one path to go up and down. I just thought it was something interesting and terrifying. Then I was thinking about this book, Our bodies, ourselves (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective), which was a great book in the 1970s and is credited with catalyzing the new version of feminism and [in helping] women learn about their body. I am a trans person and I ask this question all the time; my body, my self, wanted to suggest an “ours” or an “us” because we are doing so many things together.
Rindon Johnson, Coeval Proposal no. 1: demolish it to make it flat with the ground or the * Trans America building Dismantling EVERYTHING, 2021 – ongoing. Sequoia. Commissioned and produced by SculptureCenter, New York and Chisenhale Gallery, London. Courtesy of artist and Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Kyle Knodell
W *: A work, Coeval Proposal no. 1: demolish it to make it flat with the ground or the * Trans America building Dismantling EVERYTHING, refers to the San Francisco Transamerica Pyramid. What attracted you to this building and how did you create the play?
RJ: I’m a trans person, I’m from San Francisco, and it turns out there’s already a building named for the person I am: the Transamerica Pyramid. So it seemed to me that it had to be mine. Due to the circumstance we are in, the play was made by an amazing studio called Tri-Lox in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and I am grateful to Tri-Lox because they really understood the project and were dealing with wood recovered from the towers of New York water that are redwood, northern California. There are other questions about what architecture is and who can control things, but ultimately the Trans America building is about naming, who can name what and when and all that. §
Rindon Johnson, Floating by the cannon, by the cannon, by the cannon, the peace of martial law, the peace of martial law, the walls of the cannon are 2,000 feet high, 2,000 feet high, 2,000 feet high, a pair of goggles pink, colored glasses, it’s just a matter of time. No, this thing and not the other. CREEK! It’s just a matter of time. Find me inside, many of us were scared, but after eating a pizza from the backpack of a swimming man, they were looking for dessert. They found the bag and decided to take it, 2021. Rose Brooks stained glass with lead. Courtesy of artist and Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Kyle Knodell