Square Peg (2003)

Chakaia Booker (American, born 1953) grew up in New Jersey. Referring to herself as a ‘narrative environmental sculptor’, Book finds and manipulates automobile tires to create her sculptures. For Booker, the tires are a perfect metaphor for human diversity; her work also references cultural issues such as race, economic differences, consumer culture, the environment, and industrialization. The crescent-shaped Square Peg (2003), created with stainless steel and woven tire wedges, also speaks of multiple dualities: hard and soft, curved and straight, movement and stillness.

Booker’s works are part of collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Newark Museum, among many others. She was the recipient ofa Pollock-Krasner Grant (2002) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005). Recent public installation highlights include Millenium 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).