Photo of collection object Thurgood in the House of Chaos
Johnson, Rashid. Thurgood in the House of Chaos, 2009. Photolithograph, 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm). Gift of Exit Art, 2013.30.28. © Rashid Johnson © artist or artist's estate.

Thurgood in the House of Chaos

2009

Rashid Johnson

American, born 1977

Contemporary Art

This photolithograph shows the artist dressed as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, overlaid with a graffiti-style set of shooter’s crosshairs. Using an image of himself, Rashid Johnson thereby questions the notion of judicial progress for present-day African Americans from the landmark Civil Rights-era decisions Marshall oversaw, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

The title makes reference to Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” (1988), which details an escape from prison, and suggests that mass incarceration is a form of legalized discrimination:

Cell block and locked, I never clock it y’all
Cause time and time again
Time, they got me serving to those and to them,
I’m not a citizen

Maker/Artist
Johnson, Rashid
Classification
Print
Formatted Medium
Photolithograph
Dimensions
30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
Departments
Contemporary Art
Accession Number
2013.30.28
Credit Line
Gift of Exit Art
Rights Statement
© artist or artist's estate
Dominant Colors

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