We are thrilled to share that Rindon Johnson is invited to the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Installed in a prominent site in the Giardini, Johnson’s monumental outdoor sculpture Coeval Proposition #1: Tear down so as to make flat with the Ground or The *Trans America Building DISMANTLE EVERYTHING (2021-ongoing) references the Transamerica Pyramid in his native San Francisco. The 5.20-meter sculpture continues Johnson‘s interest in the fluidity of language. Employing his trans identity as a compass, the artist attaches himself to other objects and states of being that share the same name, trans. The sculpture consists of two interlocking pyramids, one pointing upward to the sky and one pointing downward to the ground. It is made of ebonized (darkened) old-growth California redwood reclaimed from New York City‘s now defunct and dismantled water towers.
A second work by Rindon Johnson made of rawhide titled For example, collect the water just to see it pool there above your head. Don’t be a Fucking Hero! (2021) is suspended from the ceiling in the Biennale’s Arsenale. Johnson’s ongoing hide based works name leather as a by-product and relic of industrial processing chains in order to name the intertwined systematic problematics of the construction of race, animal rights and the human constructed climate crisis.
60th International Art Exhibition
Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere
Venice, Giardini and Arsenale
20 April – 24 November 2024
Pre-opening days
17 – 19 April 2024
