- Active: Memphis (Shelby County)
- Region: West
- Mediums: Wood Masks, Painting
- Website
Rahn Marion
My work borrows from history, documents my place within the Western art canon, asserts black representation, and combats moral hypocrisy. I’ve been inspired by history and places, and people. My work’s visual language features symbolism, metaphors, and reflections of past historical art periods while juxtaposing, integrating, and portraying black figures in the contemporary.
My name is Rahn Marion. I’m a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on painting. Born and raised here in Memphis, I’ve always taken to creating with anything I could get my hands on, paint, sticks, mud, paint, grass, magnets, pencils anything. I was lucky to have supportive parents that believed in the journey of the artist way, even when I couldn’t see it for myself. My parents weren’t artist but my mother dabbled with pencils throughout my life, so she had some idea of how to lead me through mediums or point me in the right direction.
As an emerging queer black artist in Memphis, I’ve faced numerous challenges and obstacles on my journey, whether that be racially, or otherwise. In the south you have to navigate like a feather with a rock tied on, wavering through the wind. But being grounded like a rock through Kundalini Yoga, or meditation has always been my way of coming back to myself, and not allowing the obvious dangers to sway me off track. Kundalini focuses on the breath, and putting your body in strange, uncomfortable positions so you can breathe through them, and become comfortable even when uncomfortable. In this day and age, this is incredibly necessary.
I’ve been finding inspiration in medieval artworks, artists like Harmonia Rosales, Remedios Varo, William Blake, Albrecht Durer, Hitda Codex, and Hieronymus Bosch and manuscript illustrations, most of those artists are unknown, and the illustrations were being created in a time of newness and imagination.. some of them didn’t know what some animals looked like, only drawing from descriptions. I find it hilarious and makes me jealous of such an imaginative time. I feel like mainstream society today lacks imagination. It’s not their fault most things are shoved into our face from our devices.
In the recent years I’ve taken wood sculpting under my belt, and have connected my ancestors and lineage of black Memphis sculptors as my biggest inspiration. Benin Bronzes have drawn me to creating masks of similar appearance but only through wood work, and a burning technique. I’m able to convey a strong African style, while still allowing my own artistic style to shine through. I also paint with Oils, and I use this medium because of the range of ways to manipulate the paint, whether that be texture, scraping, thinning, layering, etc. Living in a church I’ve come to be very familiar with the bible and liturgical seasons, these themes have found a cozy place in my work, sometimes it shows itself through iconography, some more subtle, such as religious poses, or sacred objects. I tie all of my experiences through my youth of discovering my sexuality, and trying my best to concentrate on what it means to be a black man in America. My work encapsulates all of these ideas, heavy handed or not. I hope my viewers regardless of their identity can relate and find their own selves within the works.
All of these elements help me communicate complex ideas, and feelings, fostering empathy and understanding between diverse groups of people. I hope to elevate my people, and look for various other ways of seeing ourselves. Imagining a world of more imaginative unconventional ways of viewing their perspective and cultivating a more vibrant community.
Excerpt from https://canvasrebel.com/meet-rahn-marion/
CRAFTING BLACKNESS 
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