theblackunicornexists:

becauseiamawoman:

Fem Art Friday Feature: Kara Walker

Contemporary artist Kara Walker deals with the complicated issues of race, gender, and sexuality in her art pieces. These themes are often explored through her well-known silhouettes pieces. In her own words…

“I was really searching for a format to sort of encapsulate, to simplify complicated things…And some of it spoke to me as: ‘it’s a medium…historically, it’s a craft…and it’s very middle-class.’ It spoke to me in the same way that the minstrel show does…it’s middle class white people rendering themselves black, making themselves somewhat invisible, or taking on an alternate identity because of the anonymity … and because the shadow also speaks about so much of our psyche. You can play out different roles when you’re rendered black, or halfway invisible.” [Source]

I have never really been totally sure of how I feel about Kara Walker. All my reading suggests that younger artists of color like her alright, white artists love to legitimize her as the quintessential racial firebrand of the art community, but older artists of color tend to think of her as exploitative - some of her more elaborate pieces feature voice recordings of her and her daughter whispering, “I wish I were white.”

I always find it to be suspicious when an artist of color is suddenly extremely popular with a very white Art World, particularly because that world somehow manages to laud Frida Kahlo and somehow still ignore her very strong political leanings.

At the end of the day, I’m always glad to see an woman of color asserting a very big presence in an otherwise quite pale Art World. And while it’s definitely not my place to say whether or not it’s problematic because Walker’s engagement of a discourse on Blackness in America, I am curious to know how my fellow artists of color see her work.

1. punkassbook-jockey reblogged this from turmoilsofthesea
2. killerpolaroids reblogged this from wine-loving-vagabond
3. crooked-horizon reblogged this from zzawe
4. lyrelyre reblogged this from becauseiamawoman
5. zzawe reblogged this from wweltschmerz
6. sareejane likes this
7. call-me-beelzebub reblogged this from whatwouldmandydo
8. intothewildabyss likes this
9. withinyouwithout-you likes this
10. whatwouldmandydo reblogged this from soyclayojn
11. soyclayojn reblogged this from becauseiamawoman
12. morningglorious reblogged this from evermean
13. exuberantlypessimistic reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
14. shirowscafe reblogged this from eisenmaiden
15. strawberrymices reblogged this from positivemotivation and added:

    her work is awesome. i think it was at the tate modern i saw it… some shit had tried to rip the paper cut-outs off the...

16. ontealtea likes this
17. bizarreberry reblogged this from positivemotivation and added:

    wow i remember watching a documentary about this in pbs. i found it again

18. lavendertentacle likes this
19. girlprince reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
20. girlprince likes this
21. ghostofthewind likes this
22. liftilraun likes this
23. starhannah likes this
24. ursa-felina likes this
25. positivemotivation reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
26. positivemotivation likes this
27. eisenmaiden reblogged this from phrenotobe
28. eisenmaiden likes this
29. kaernkupthenoise likes this
30. crackinthecloud reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
31. vae-v1ctus reblogged this from phrenotobe and added:

    we studied her in my art class last semester!!! what a fantastic artist, and what fantastic work she does.

32. vae-v1ctus likes this
33. phrenotobe reblogged this from renownedmonarchthequeen
34. kaybeast reblogged this from smilingsword and added:

    One of my favorite artists… I wrote my Figure Drawing Final on her work and also created an art piece based off what I...

35. oopspaulina likes this
36. underwaterwoods reblogged this from crezias
37. smilingsword reblogged this from rosietheriveter01
38. rosietheriveter01 reblogged this from amyleona
39. shehadawarriorsheart reblogged this from gerutha
40. lownsmokey reblogged this from becauseiamawoman
41. s4dpunk reblogged this from fuckyeahfeminists
42. 666-zeitgeist reblogged this from albinwonderland
43. thephantompancake reblogged this from becauseiamawoman
44. naminexluvzxaxel reblogged this from kokoriyu
45. naminexluvzxaxel likes this
46. madamepirate likes this
47. kokoriyu reblogged this from albinwonderland
48. mohawks-and-business-suits reblogged this from amouisrafel
49. mohawks-and-business-suits likes this
50. caste11ana likes this
51. Show more notesLoading...