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As a student in undergrad in photography with
an interest in film,

2
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And I'd overheard a conversation amongst a
couple of my professors

3
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about an exhibition that was going to be opening
at a gallery called Martha Schneider.

4
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And the title of it was "New Artists, Old
Processes,"

5
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and I felt that I really fit in.

6
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So I decided to take a portfolio to the gallery.

7
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And I think at this time I was maybe 19. I
was maybe a sophomore.

8
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They weren't interested in looking at work
of artists coming off the street.

9
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But after a little bit of pleading, she looked
at my portfolio,

10
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and the next week she gave me a solo show
[LAUGHS]

11
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in that space.

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From that solo show, a few works were bought by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum.

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--[MALE INTERVIEWER, OFF CAMERA] So you're
pretty ballsy?

14
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[JOHNSON] Well I think it was naiveté more
than balls.

15
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I think it was just an idiot.

16
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I mean if I had... I wouldn’t make that
decision today.

17
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I’m not going to go into a gallery... [LAUGHS]

18
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I'm not going to go into MoMA with a portfolio

19
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and say, "Hey, I'm here with my things. You
should look at them."

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["Rashid Johnson Keeps His Cool"]

21
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--[JOHNSON] He enters.

22
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[Hauser & Wirth, Upper East Side]

23
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[Marc Payot, Gallerist]

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--[PAYOT] Especially in your case, the black
works,

25
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--it's impossible to see

26
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--it gets flat in photography.

27
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--[JOHNSON] It's kind of a nice thing when
people see the photographs

28
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--and then they actually see the works--

29
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--how visceral the actual textures are.

30
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--But people like pictures.

31
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[ALL LAUGH]

32
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I was working with a lot of, kind of,

33
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Nineteenth-Century photographic process materials.

34
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And, while you're working with those materials,

35
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quite a bit of what you're doing is actually,
like,

36
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physically applying the photo-sensitive chemistry
to the paper.

37
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So it got me very, kind of, interested in
paper.

38
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It got me very interested in materials, and
how material was being applied,

39
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and how, physically, I was participating with it;

40
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which, I think, later on, leads me to melting
black soap and wax, and pouring it.

41
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So I think it was a very natural progression
for me.

42
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I was really interested in, kind of, taking
ownership of a few different materials--

43
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some things that I hadn't seen really employed
in art objects

44
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that I could, kind of, essentially take as
my own.

45
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When I was about 22, I started going to the
Russian Turkish bath house all the time,

46
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and I was just, kind of, sitting there and
sweating,

47
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and finding a way to kind of relax, because
I'm kind of a tad high strung, and...

48
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[LAUGHS]

49
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So, it really became kind of like almost like
a temple to me,

50
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like almost a religious space.

51
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And I've always wanted to find a material
or something I could kind of use

52
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to have a conversation about, like cleansing,

53
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you know, like a psychological cleansing,
as well as a physical cleansing.

54
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[David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles]

55
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Shea butter, for me...

56
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when I was young, my mom would bring it back
from West Africa,

57
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and we'd have it in the house.

58
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And over time, I starting thinking,

59
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"We're, like, putting Africa on ourselves,
right?"

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Like, we're like essentially kind of coating
ourselves with this African product.

61
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I've always been interested in the domestic,

62
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and around, kind of, highjacking, you know,

63
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things that we're familiar with,

64
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and, you know, essentially kind of occupying
them,

65
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or translating them through different filters.

66
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[Venice Biennale, Italy]

67
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A professor of mine used to say:

68
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in the morning, you would get up, and before
you left the house,

69
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you'd look in the mirror, and you'd change
something small about yourself,

70
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and that's who you thought you were.

71
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That's who your "now" character was.

72
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You know, and then two minutes after you leave
that mirror, that thing has changed.

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[LAUGHS] You know?

74
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And so, with the mirror works,

75
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which become kind of these vehicles for deconstructing
what has been reflected in them...

76
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For me, it was interesting to make an art
object

77
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that you can then find your "now" space again,
you know,

78
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while you actually participate with the object.

79
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You get to be that "now" character.

80
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My blackness--or the issues around that--

81
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have a strong effect on how my work is born

82
00:05:08,470 --> 00:05:12,960
and around the conversation that inevitably
will happen,

83
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but I don't think that it's really the sum
of all what my work is.

84
00:05:17,479 --> 00:05:21,280
I think, formally, I'm trying to approach
art making

85
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in a way that is a part of the bigger history
of art.

86
00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:38,520
New York is a beast, you know?

87
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It's a difficult place to come to as an artist.

88
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There's not a whole lot of hand-holding.

89
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You know, I had several shitty studios, and...
[LAUGHS]

90
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You know, but I think one thing was consistent--

91
00:05:51,250 --> 00:05:55,870
that I knew that I wanted to continue to work,

92
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and to see how far I could push the work.

93
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It's a place I think you come to when you
decide that you really want to be an artist,

94
00:06:04,979 --> 00:06:08,440
and that you will do whatever is necessary

95
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:13,960
to allow the work to get the attention that
you think it deserves.

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--[JOHNSON] Can I bum a cigarette off anyone?

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--[MAN] Congrats, man.

98
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--[JOHNSON] Thank you.

99
00:06:22,060 --> 00:06:23,960
They say, I think, New York shakes,

100
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and if you’re not grounded in it, [LAUGHS]

101
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you know you might fall off this motherfucker.
[LAUGHS]

102
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--[MALE INTERVIEWER, OFF CAMERA] Have you
gotten close?

103
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I've been okay.

104
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I've been alright, you know?