Kara Walker
Kara Walker produces mural-sized, paper
cutout silhouettes to create a dense
caustic narrative of nineteenth-century,
antebellum slavery. She details the
black-paper cutouts with stereotypical
characters – pickaninnies, sambos,
mammies, slave mistresses, and masters. My
first impression of her work is that
she elegantly portrays scenes from
African American plantation life; however, I
became aware that sexual,
violent, and scatological images are represented
repeatedly in her
landscapes. She exaggerates the grotesque history of slavery
and race
relations in America. Foremost of all, I agree with older Blacks of
feelings
of fear regarding the inclusion of slavery as a part of their history,
and
the use of stereotypes to detonate ancient equations of racism.
Older
generations cannot explain stereotypical imagery except with malice and
hate.
Betye Saar negative opinion of Walker convinced me; she believes
that Walker
stoops to accommodate the White art world to ensure her financial
success (MacArthur
Foundation Achievement Award). Saar has fought to
suppress stereotypes through
the empowerment of these icons, and her artwork
arouses sympathy from black
compatriots. This can be seen in her work, The
Liberation of Aunt Jemima. It
seems that Walkers illustration of contorting
slave imagery resuscitates noxious
racial perceptions which Saar and other
social activists try to deny. After I
had Ms. Cahans lecture, and during the
following class discussion, I clearly
grasped the meaning of Walkers
intention, Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke, and
the reasons for controversy
surrounding her ambitious work. I am aware that
Walker does not
accommodate herself to the White society that once shared the
belief that
slavery was justifiable. Her use of stereotypical and devastating
imagery
becomes a weapon, and she seems to avenge the past sins of the society
in
which she creates her work. For African Americans, the pain of racism
is
everpresent, and Walker's world is devoid of the sinless and the passive
black
victim. Walker mines the source of this discomfort from submerged
history and
goes so deep that everyone is involved. She knows that
stereotypes have not
disappeared: they have only been hidden. The animated
figures of her cut-paper
wall murals attempt to change a painful past into
satire. Consequently, African
Americans can conquer a fear of racism in
which the themes of power and
exploitation continue to have deep meaning for
them in contemporary American
society. Using humor, they digest the
indigestible agony. Furthermore, nothing
can be eradicated, nor can their
pain be suppressed by looking back tragic
events. Walkers shocking narrative
is a powerful heeling process of dealing with
slavery. Younger generations
who were born after the Civil Rights Movements may
have instinct for destroy
the fear because they are proud of themselves being
black; they are brought
up as Black is beautiful. As she has turned the art
world upside down and
involved the African American society with her work, I
understand how art can
lift people above the problem and change lives. I would
like to say that
artist must recognize this point and have responsibility to own
artwork.
Artist sometimes plays an important part in the social issue.