H x W x D (frame): 32 1/8 × 26 × 2 3/8 in. (81.6 × 66 × 6 cm)
H x W (work): 23 3/4 × 18 in. (60.3 × 45.7 cm)
Type:
multimedia works
portraits
Place made:
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America
Date:
2020
Caption:
Rashaun Rucker is best known for his work dealing with Black male identity and social conditioning. In his Psychological Redlining series, he merges portraits of African American men with images of rock pigeons. Rock pigeons are generally viewed as urban, unclean nuisances. Rucker asserts that people perceive Black men much the same way—essentially pigeonholing them psychologically into a space where they don’t belong. The red cages framing each portrait relates to redlining, a systemic real estate policy demarcating communities of color by red lines on a map to limit access to home loans, insurance, and even grocery stores. Rucker says he created these images to “communicate why we as Black men often don’t fly, even though we have the ability to go far and beyond our circumstance.”
Description:
This is a mixed media portrait of a man with a pigeon emerging from the top of his head, framed within a red frame in the shape of a birdcage. The graphite portrait shows the man from the neck up. He faces front, his gaze directly on the viewer. The pigeon emerges from the man’s head slightly to the right-hand side. The bird is nearly fully formed body and is only missing its feet. Its body appears to be turned in profile to the viewer, but its head is turned back against its shoulder to gaze directly at the audience. The portrait is enclosed in a frame of red paint in the shape of a birdcage. The two sides consist of narrow red lines while the base is a thick red line with a beveled edge. The top of the “cage” is a solid red triangle with a round knob on top. The artist's signature "Ruck" appears along the man's neck.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Partial gift of Arthur Primas and Jumaane E. N’Namdi and museum purchase.
