Chakaia Booker: Shaved Portions

Chakaia Booker: Shaved Portions
Commissioned specifically for Campbell Art Park, Shaved Portions is among the most recent additions to Booker’s body of work marked by her distinct ability to radically transform her signature material — salvaged rubber tires — into an incredible array of biomorphic sculptures. Booker slices, twists, weaves and rivets her medium into radically new forms and textures, which easily withstand outdoor environments. For the artist, the varied tones of the rubber parallels human diversity, while the tire treads suggest images as varied as African scarification and textile designs. Repurposed from cast-off industrial scraps that would otherwise have remained symbols of urban blight or measures of wanton waste, Shaved Portions is a monumental work standing sentinel atop Automobile Alley, which was originally lined with car dealerships. Image: Chakaia Booker, Manipulating Fractions, 2004.