Rindon Johnson, Coeval Proposition #1: Tear down so as to make flat with the Ground or The *Trans America Building DISMANTLE EVERYTHING, 2021

2021

Medium

Antique heart redwood

Dimensions

148.5 × 148.5 cm

Edition

Series of 3 (#2/3)

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155783

Rindon Johnson is invited by Adriano Pedrosa to position the large-scale sculpture "Coeval Proposition #1: Tear down so as to make flat with the Ground or The *Trans America Building DISMANTLE EVERYTHING" (2021-ongoing) at the Giardini as part of the main exhibition at the 60th Venice Biennale. The The 5.20 m high sculpture continues Johnson’s interest in the fluidity of language. In this ongoing series, Johnson uses his trans identity as a compass attaching himself to other objects and states of being that share the same trans title. In short, Johnson burglarizes trans named shapes and forms to create sculpture. For "Coeval Proposition #1" Johnson turns to the Transamerica Pyramid in his native San Francisco. Though it is now one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, when it was completed in 1972 it was received with skepticism and called “the most portentously and insidiously bad building in The City” by the SF Examiner. Johnson sees this experience as a trans one: hated at first and then over time seemingly beloved (possibly exploited). Johnson uses the building to address questions of identity and belonging, starting from where one comes from, but also accounting for one’s ongoing process of identification and disidentification, the labor of recognition and obscurity, and how it relates to the greater biosphere of San Francisco. The sculpture comprises two interlocking pyramids, one pointing upward to the sky and one pointing downward to the ground. It is made of old growth California redwood reclaimed from New York City’s now defunct and dismantled water towers.