Dilated Perception, 2007

Since the 1980s, Chakaia Booker has transformed discarded tires into commanding, abstract sculptures, from small-scale wall pieces to monumental public works that probe a range of sociopolitical issues. Booker was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and in 2005, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her evocative pieces engage with the historical and cultural associations of rubber tires, which she originally salvaged from city streets, auto repair shops, and dump sites. Booker lives in New York City, where she first began her tire sculptures; she works in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she continues to touch upon urgent topics like industrial waste and decline or racial and class structures. Booker’s works are contained in more than 40 public collections and have been exhibited across the US, in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Recent public installations include Millennium Park, Chicago (2016-2018), Garment District Alliance Broadway Plazas, New York, NY (2014), and National Museum of Women in the Arts New York Avenue Sculpture Project, Washington DC (2012).