I don't pretend to be an art critic. But I know what I LOVE. I love when an artist actually has something to SAY, moreso than just the ability to CREATE. Truthfully, there are thousands of people out there armed with skilled hands, canvas board, and a degree in art history. There are also those without at least one of the three. However, when an individual has the "trinity" in ADDITION to an unambiguous and fearless point of view, things start to happen. Enter the world of Kara Walker.
Walker uses her art to connect the dots between antebellum America, its present-day residual effects on American culture, and what it is to be a PROUD, unafraid black intellectual post 1990. She dissects the post-colonial American Anthem, whose broad stripes and bright stars had protected the majority while imprisoning black people in the land of the free who had no choice but to be brave. She rallies on the way slavery and post-slavery has been glossed over in the American history book, reintroducing the subjects in real- and really disturbing-imagery, which is the way it SHOULD be rendered. Her visual ingredients (various incantations of Southern haughtiness, juvenile sexual degradation, fecal matter and situational despair) combine to make up the cocktail that sons and daughters of slaves had no choice but to swallow.
That cocktail is served without apologies this season as Walker's innermost thoughts come to life in her newest exhibit at The Whitney, aptly titled Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love. Her images, though only two-dimensional in most cases (save for the mixed media "films" she debuts at this exhibit), speak louder and more forcefully on the ever-persistent issue of race in this country than any three-dimensional preacher, historian or politician could. They are emphatic and erudite; the subject matter sensational and non-debateable; the result isn't agitprop but pure GENIUS. Its no wonder that the MacArthur Foundation felt the need to bestow its coveted "genius" grant to Walker in 1997.
Walker's main claim to fame thus far- mastering the 18th century art of cut-paper silhouettes and bending them to her will in the 21st century- has set many minds ablaze because she has taken this forgotten medium and applied it to the unforgettable issue of RACE in America (especially unforgettable if you're a person of color in this country). Although it sounds relatively artsy-craftsy, Papier mache it is NOT! Her black silhouettes on vast white canvases seem to speak to the typical black American's feeling of being the antithesis of what this country was seemingly planned to be while unmistakeably, inescapably being part of the whole grand scheme. However, if that were the only point she was trying to get across, it would seem too simplistic. It is what those black silhouettes are doing, having done to them, or finding themselves in the middle of that brings the point home.
While her signature and sword to date has been the black paper cutouts that gained her notoriety- and cult status- in the art world, Walker has not rested on her artistically pedigreed laurels. Now she has come of age and branched out, offering us small watercolor illustrations of her most introspective (and perhaps most specific)thoughts, leaving nothing open to interpretation. In her "Negress Notes", her subjects are beatific individuals with shrill intent and self-control; the accompanying text is always engaging, intelligently stated and appropriate- never apoplectic.
What can I say about Kara Walker? I can tell you that she is an artist that will not be ignored. I can also tell you that you won't grow weary-eyed walking through one of her exhibits; romanticizing post-slavery America "Gone With The Wind"-style is not what you'll find here. What you WILL find is Walker's version, titled "Gone, An Historical Romance of Civil War As it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of Young Negress and Her Heart" - which had art students and critics alike dropping her name left and right when she introduced the piece in 1994. You'll have no reason to walk hurriedly through the halls of her exhibit, ignoring the artists' perspective and categorizing it as just another "black history lesson", because after spending 2 minutes surrounded by Walker's offerings, you'll figure out that it is less black history and more lesson. It is the lesson of a place gone awry, a people splintered over idealogy without regard for the humanistic experience that we all deserve. It is hell on earth, delivered ethereally though paper, watercolor or mixed media. It is personal and universal. It is emotional and intellectual. Utilizing subtle yet powerful strokes, Walker seems to speak loudly to all four components of the exhibit's title- determining her complement, decrying her enemy, decreeing her oppressor and defining her love. After walking out of the Whitney that night, I don't think I'll ever be the same.
Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love" is on exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NYC through February 3, 2008
http://www.whitney.org/www/exhibition/kara_walker/index.html
