Among the wide-range of Rashid Johnson's art, his series of shelf with tiled mirrors are the most successful pieces that visualize his attempt to question the cultural identity of African Americans. The Shuttle (2011), reflects viewers with diverse cultural backgrounds, that include foreign tourists in the museum, to invite its audiences as parts of the work. Mundane objects on shelves also reflects viewer's own shelves. The two reflections are universal for everybody from modern society thus rejecting the idea of "black culture" as an entity that only applies for a specific racial group. Although there are elements in the piece that personalizes the piece rather than universalizes. Selection of books and records, shea butters, family pictures and some signs of violence (cracks and black slashes) reminds audience of Johnson's own life and history. A viewer who once recognized the shelf as his/hers then realizes the tension between individuality and commonality. Johnson's shelves imply that personal lives of African-Americans shares the same value with other ethnic groups in modern culture and also each African-American individual has unique and distinctive life style that is as diverse as everybody else.
I liked this piece as well. I felt as if he was giving us a view inside his world with things that interest him. Another piece like this was "The Moment of Creation". Both pieces gave me the same feeling. You did a good job explaining this piece by pointing out the meanings of the cracks that I didn't even notice.
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