At the center of Rashid Johnson’s ‘architectural grid work,’ classically trained pianist Antoine Baldwin plays jazz compositions on a piano fixed high in the structure. Complex and intriguing sounds merge with an arrangement of evocative objects – plants in planters hand-made by the artist, blocks of shea butter, stacks of books relating to African-American culture and early video work by Johnson. Together they continue the artist’s theme of freedom and anxiety experienced by African-American men in America, offering escape through lush greenery (signaling travel to a warmer land) and abundant reading material (liberation for the mind) or imprisonment by a rigid grid. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through Oct 22nd).
