Untitled (lungs)

Rodney McMillianWW-2008-013407

2008·Acrylic, fabric, and chicken wire·259.1 × 193 × 45.7 cm (102 × 76 × 18 in.)

Rodney McMillian’s work grapples with the complexities of race, class, and place in America across a wide range of media. In his sculpture he often redeploys domestic materials and approaches the conventional terms of painting— wall-bound, cloth-based. He engages not only history and contemporary culture but also the potential for alternative realities and future transformation. The giant, ominous, bodily forms of Untitled (lungs) manifest current political and social tensions through their own insistent physicality: they simultaneously project into the room and hang abjectly down toward the floor; their shapes are soft and organic, but their surfaces are opaque and appear calcified; they are absurdly larger than life, but they prompt greater awareness of our own fragile, pulsing bodies.

Catalogue

Year: 2008
Medium: Acrylic, fabric, and chicken wire
Dimensions: 259.1 × 193 × 45.7 cm (102 × 76 × 18 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Rodney McMillian

Artist

Rodney McMillian

Painting

Rodney McMillian is known for his installations comprised of discarded mattresses, filing cabinets, wood paneling, chairs, bookshelves, and other found materials that suggest the weight of history. By using old objects, he recreates his own version of historic moments—often with overt references to domestic life, the education system, the civil government, and race relations. His hope is to remind his viewers of opinions or accounts that are in the minority or have been completely forgotten. Another recurring motif in his work is the amorphous cloth shape, taking the form of either stuffed appendages or large swaths. McMillian has even been known to sell his canvases by the square foot.

Los Angeles, CA, USA

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