This is NOT me...
It's Kara Walker. She's an artist and she is fabulous.
A few years ago someone gave me a bunch of books, and in one of those books, I discovered
the art of Kara Walker. I had never seen anything like it before, and was fascinated.
A month ago I heard that her exhibit had arrived at the Hammer Museum. I put it on my "must see" list, and today a friend and I went to see the exhibit. We were lucky to arrive just in time to get a tour from a docent. I found her work as appealing as the subject matter is disturbing. Ms. Walker's work deals with romanticized myths of the antebellum south and the love/hate relationship between the enslavers and the enslaved. The art is striking - paper cutouts (silhouettes) arranged on walls to create a scene - but the symbiotic relationships depicted are perverse and distorted. I'm still thinking about some of the pieces and plan to go back to see the videos that I didn't have time to see today, as well as revisit some of the some of the more resonant works.
If you get a chance to check out the exhibit, go! It will be up through June 8.
Oh, Kara Walker is AWESOME. I love her stuff. I saw a PBS thing on her work a few years ago and they showed some pieces in progress... She really thinks hard about the shape of every line and what it says. They may just be giant silhouettes, but there is soooo much thought and planning behind each one. Simple yet profound.
Posted by: susan | April 21, 2008 at 12:07 PM
"Simple yet profound." hits it right on the head.
Posted by: Nicole J. Butler | April 21, 2008 at 01:11 PM