Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Kara Walker, American, b. 1969



Kara Walker speaks about her silhouettes. 14:15.



Room-size Tableaux of Black Cut-paper Silhouettes






Antebellum - Latin - ante = before and bellum = war.
American Civil War 1861 - 1865
Jim Crow Laws - Legalized racial segregation. 
Civil Rights, 1960's















Walker comments:
"The history of America is built on inequality, this foundation of a racial inequality and social inequality," the artist has said. "And we buy into it. I mean, whiteness is just as artificial a construct as blackness is." (information from MoMA caption). -text source is NYC loves NYC








A Subtlety 
or 
The Marvelous Sugar Baby: 
An Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our sweet tastes from the cane fields to the kitchens of the New World on the occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant
New York City, 2014



35 feet tall, 75 feet in length
Fig Gesture
Sugar brown in raw form. 
Harvest sugar cane - cut, bleach, bag
Scale
Beat down but still standing. 









Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt
About 5000 BCE
Greek tradition - female
Mythical creature, body of lion, head of human, falcon, cat, sheep. 
Power






Fons Americanus
Tate Modern, London
2019




History of monuments. Questions narratives of power. 
Water - Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.








Source Link: 




Victoria Memorial, London
1901 - 1924


Enthroned Queen Victoria


Winged Victory
Roman Goddess of Victory
Equivalent to Greek Goddess of Victory Nike



No comments:

Post a Comment