<I>Urban Mask</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2001
name: label: Created by
content: Chakaia Booker, American, born 1953
notes: label: Caption
content: Chakaia Booker’s choice of material, used and abandoned tires, has a variety of symbolic meanings that are as complex and layered as the work itself. The concept of repurposing discarded objects and creating something vital and beautiful relates to the African American historical concept of "making a way out of no way." Often black people were forced to transform secondhand schoolbooks and clothing into something useful and meaningful to themselves.
label: Caption
content: The Urban Mask suggests the notion of the inner city—an area generally perceived as a ghetto populated by black and brown people. Her use of the word "mask" alludes to acts of performance as well as concealment as a means of survival.
label: Description
content: This is an abstract, expressionist sculpture composed of rubber from old tires. The tires have been cut into strips and shapes, looped and curled around each other in a series of arcs.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Abstraction
label: Topic
content: Art
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2010.48
objectType: label: Type
content: sculpture
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Chakaia Booker
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: rubber with wire
label: Dimensions
content: 34 x 23 x 15 1/2 in. (86.4 x 58.4 x 39.4 cm)