(Interview conducted by DCist contributor Jeff Simmermon)

Djakarta is the artist behind the “Niggaz4Life” pieces, currently on display as part of the E2: Carving a Path exhibition, previously mentioned on DCist. Her work derives its title from NWA’s classic rap album and song “Niggaz4Life,” released in 1991. Djakarta’s video work is a montage of film clips from popular Hollywood films that portray black people singing, dancing, and mugging for the camera with the exhibit’s namesake song as a soundtrack. Her two-dimensional works are imitations of the classic military recruitment poster, featuring prominent celebrities Vin Diesel, Mariah Carey, and Tiger Woods as central figures. The posters are samples from a city-wide poster campaign, wherein posters were placed on telephone poles, newspaper boxes, walls and even inside newspapers. We caught up with Djakarta recently to talk about her artwork and the social issues that inspired it.

What is the intention behind the posters and postcards?

These are like Army recruitment posters, but inverting the message so that instead of one person pointing at the masses and saying “I Want You,” it’s the masses of black people saying “We Want You,” so they’re like wanted posters. It’s easy to identify the celebrities, and I wanted to catch people’s attention and make them ask questions. I like the juxtaposition of these clean-cut mulatto celebrities who don’t really associate themselves with being black have “Niggaz4Life” stamped on their forehead or stamped across their chest in a poster that say “We Want You.”

And hopefully when people see “Niggaz4Life” they’ll go “whoa.” They won’t think Mariah Carey has a new CD out. They know that’s definitely something she’s not going to attach to herself to, and the same with Vin Diesel and definitely not Tiger Woods, so hopefully it just causes people to think a little bit more.