Chakaia Booker
| Chakaia Booker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1953 Newark, New Jersey |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
Rutgers University, City College of New York |
| Known for | Sculpture |
Chakaia Booker (born in 1953 Newark, New Jersey) is an American artist.
Booker received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1976. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from the City College of New York (CUNY) in 1993. Now in her sixties, Booker has studied a variety of different subjects including African dance, ceramics, weaving, basketry as well as t'ai chi which all contribute to her interesting artistic practices. Booker always felt the need to utilize these skills differently as a means of experimentation and play. These skills were all translated into a tool for creating her elaborate sculptures.
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.
Beginning in the 1980s Booker created wearable sculptures which she could place herself inside and utilize as clothing. "The wearable garment sculpture was about getting energy and feeling from a desired design." Booker continues to create a wearable sculpture in response to the materials which she uses in her current work. From her creations of wearable sculptures in the 1980s, Booker began to create work from discarded materials which she found at construction sites. These found materials each had its own purpose, history, and use which she finds interesting. This search for discarded materials brings us to the "rubber tire" from which her most notorious work is created.
Booker began working with rubber tires in the early 1990s and presently continues to work in this medium. The various tread patterns, colors, and widths which the tires possess create a palette for Booker similar to the palette of painter. Booker's utiliztation of tires was considered to be an "aesthetic response to the urban landscape of Northern New Jersey." The rubber and tires were transformed into fluid materials giving them a new life and energy. The tires represented metaphors which satisfied aesthetic, political, and economic concerns. Lucinda Masson notes that Booker's use of recycled tires can remind us of how modes of transportation have changed since the industrial age.
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. "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."
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