ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: RASHID JOHNSON AT THE ASPEN ART MUSEUM

A New Yorker finds “utopia” in the mountains.

Originally published Summer 2019 for Aspen Peak (Print Issue)

Once upon a mid-1940s time, a box-maker from Chicago came to Aspen to create his version of utopia. This box-maker didn’t see his propitious products as mere tools of industry. He saw their blank outside panels as canvases and hired some of the finest artists of the day to adorn them. The man was Walter Paepcke of Paepcke Park fame, (also of the Container Corporation of America, The Aspen Institute, The Aspen Music School and The Aspen Skiing Corporation fame.) He saw Aspen too as a canvas upon which to create his humanistic mountain paradise.

80 years on, another “container man”—of sorts— also from Chicago has come to Aspen to explore, perhaps a more complicated vision of utopia. His containers are strictly works of art, stacked metal frames which hold potted plants, found objects and butter (more on that later). While most people think of art as static and unchanging, Rashid Johnson’s works are meant to absorb their surroundings—sometimes horticulturally, as certain cases may be, sometimes sonically, sometimes conceptually.

Johnson explains, “I always want my work to be overgrown, or overcome by environment.” When asked about Aspen’s environment he responds, “It’s so formidable, so beautiful and cascading … The extremes of this place are definitely something to think about.”

Born and raised in Chicago, now a property-owning citizen of Brooklyn, Johnson works in a wide array of media exploring themes of art history, individual and shared cultural identities, personal narratives, literature and philosophy. He started in photography, studying at the Art Institute of Chicago (founded by Walter Paepcke, by the by.) Johnson’s practice quickly expanded to embrace a wide range of media—including sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking and installation, each medium folding into the next. In a review, The New York Times describes: “He makes photographs that look like paintings, paintings that are somehow sculptural, sculptures that resemble furniture.”

“IF I CAN QUIETLY, BUT INTENTIONAL AMPLIFY MY VOICE WITH THESE WORKS IN SPACES THAT ARE PUBLIC, THEN I FEEL LIKE I’VE LEFT SOMETHING THAT I CAN BE PROUD OF.”

Materials include wax, wood, steel, brass, shea butter, ceramic tile, books, records, VHS tapes, live plants, pianos and CB radios. The list may feel ad hoc, yet the effects are remarkably succinct. Heidi Zuckerberg, the so and so Magoon director of the Aspen Art Museum identifies the common themes: “Identity. Utopia and what that means culturally, socially and physically. Environment and landscape, where we find ourselves and why and how and what kind of psychological or philosophical impact those spaces have on the person who inhabits them.”

The solo show is all new works and includes a commissioned ballet. “I’ve been interested in movement for years,” Rashid explains over the phone, “movement in modern dance, martial arts, yoga and tai chi, but not so much in a formal way with ballet … I’m working with a choreographer and writing a story that will be the genesis of the ballet. It will live as a film and also as a live performance.” The filmed part will be done here in Aspen.

As mentioned above, butter, specifically shea butter, plays a recurring role in Johnson’s practice. Made from the West African shea tree, the derived fat is used in everything from cooking to luxury cosmetics. Primarily though, it protects and heals that which is sensitive, e.g. skin. In Aspen’s stratospheric environment of privilege and landscape, there is one leveler, and that is the undiluted sun. This valley is, if nothing else, an interesting environment to contemplate sensitivity: cultural, socio-economic, gender, racial, and yes, dermatological.  

Last summer Johnson when speaking about his installation, ‘No More Water’ at Lismore Castle Arts in Ireland, he explains his broader motives, “Art has a long story to tell and I think it’s a really effective delivery system and tool for change. It’s a slower tool than others. More quiet than activism, but in the end it gives us an opportunity to have a voice, and the amplification of one’s voice is something I’ve always been invested in. If I can quietly, but intentional amplify my voice with these works in spaces that are public, then I feel like I’ve left something that I can be proud of.” Perhaps this is an idea of utopia that Paepcke and Johnson were meant to share.

Admission to the Aspen Art Museum is, as always, free of charge. Rashid Johnson’s show, created in collaboration with the Museo Tamayo, will be on display July 4th through November 4th and then travels to Mexico City.  (Also, don’t miss his feature film directorial debut, an adaptation of Richard Wright’s, Native Son, streaming on HBO.)