Focus On: Rashid Johnson

Step into the artwork of renowned multidisciplinary artist Rashid Johnson with this exhibition of The New Black Yoga Installation. 

Gifted to the DMA by the artist in 2022, this multimedia work combines a video projection and branded Persian rugs to create an experience that is, at once, intense and intimate. The film features five Black men performing an enigmatic dance of ballet, yoga, tai chi, and martial arts across a sun-soaked beach, exploring the complexity of personal and cultural identity. 

Their choreographed movements reflect Johnson’s ongoing meditations on Black masculinity and mysticism, as well as his investigations of the body in space. Rugs branded with crosshairs, a symbol that is etched into the sand in the video, are situated throughout the gallery, projecting the film’s combined sense of peace and foreboding into physical space. ​

Focus installation

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website