Hip-Hop with a Japanese Touch - Shinique Smith

Shinique Smith - No Thief to Blame
RECOGNIZE! - Hip-Hop Exhibition
at
Washington National Portrait Gallery

I was amazed at the view of this artwork. A mixed media installation (fabric, cardboard, carpet, paper, ink, spray paint, used clothing, collage) cascading in one corner of an empty room, while from somewhere you are wrapped by the voice of Rap Godmother Nikki Giovanni, reading her new poem:

You don’t
Just wake up and brush your teeth and make up your bed
and put on your favorite pair of blue jeans

You don’t
on other evenings
Just sneak away from your sleeping lover
Just to grab a bite of Quik Stop
Just to hop a train

You don’t
Just visit the 24 hour superstore
Just to get a few cans
of spray paint
And
Just happen to have a case to put them in

You are not
Just out of yellow
So you’ll
Just shadow with grey this time
And
Just shy of metallic blue you will
Just fill in with electric orange

You are not
Just bored
Or hungry or silly or
Just crying for attention

You are
Just, if there is a
Just
Trying to be an artist

You are
Just
If there is any
Justice
Trying to find a way of not
Just surviving but living

You are just
trying to show the beautiful soul of your people
You are just
trying to say “I’m alive”
You are just
determined to be more
than what the powers who
Just hate the idea of you want you to be

You are just
trying to discover the route
of the neo underground railroad
so that your kids can
Just be free

You are just
being a man
You are just realizing
your womanhood
You are just singing and smiling
because you
Just don’t want to cry anymore

You are just
falling in love
because hatred is too hard to bear

You are just
determined
to be the very best you and
You just guess
you better not let anyone take that away

You are just
a person
with a big heart and wonderful talent
That you just
think should be shared

Put a button on it
people

‘cause suspenders
Just
won’t
do

The installation of Shinique Smith had subtle references to the Hip-Hop universe (a torn Tupac Shakur T-shirt, collaged photos of dead hip-hoppers such as Aaliyah, Jam Master Jay and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, etc), but it was something else that struck me: the finesse of the execution. It was Japanese calligraphy!

I found then on the web other images from Shinique Smith's creation, with the same delicate Japanese stamp:

Shinique Smith - Detail, 2007

Shinique Smith - Untitled

(American Art and Portraiture)

(Contemporary Art)