Kara Walker
Childhood/Education
Kara Walker was born in 1969 in Stockton, California. Her father, Larry Walker, was a painter, and as she grew older, she began to follow in his footsteps. She moved with her family to Atlanta, Georgia. Walker later attended the Atlanta College of Art, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1991. She also received a Master’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Themes
Kara Walker began to explore the ideas of slavery, racism, and stereotypes in her art, which was inspired by the Victorian era silhouettes. This traditional art form was popularized in 16th century Europe, and developed into a craft in the 19th century. In a silhouette, the sitter’s profile was depicted, and only the outline of their nose, lips, chin and forehead was displayed. The term was coined in the 1830s and was increasingly used to depict truthful portraits of a person’s likeness.
In the Victorian and colonial eras in particular, creating silhouettes became a hobby for women and served as an economical and portable alternative to painted miniatures. Walker used the minimalism and ambiguous nature of the black-on-white silhouettes to explore racial stereotypes. The viewer is thus forced to directly confront the visual cues that make up these stereotypes and contribute to racial discrimination.
The Katastwóf Wagon + Others
Details about Artifact
The Katastwóf Karavan was named after the Creole word for ‘catastrophe.’ The idea behind the creation of the Katastwóf Karavan was the sound of a steam calliope (a steam-powered instrument similar to an organ) on a Natchez riverboat. The artifacts displayed at the New York Historical Society is a smaller version of the original sculpture at Algiers Point, New Orleans, where African captives were held and sold into slavery. The original piece is a complex wagon constructed of black steel. The silhouettes of the wagon depict scenes of chain gangs and the brutality of labor in the cotton fields. Inside the three-dimensional wagon lie a 32-note calliope that played spiritual tunes and protest anthems that resonated with the African-American experience. She collaborated with Jason Moran to compose melodies that were inspired by the history of African-American protest music, such as jazz, reggae and gospel. Walker drew from the turbulent and brutal history of slavery in America, and connected these themes to present-day social and racial divisions.
The Katastwóf Wagon
Image of Darkytown Rebellion
Connection to Katastwóf Wagon
Many of Kara Walker’s art pieces touch upon the horrors of slavery and the resilience of African Americans in the face of the brutal regime and discrimination. These themes that are expressed in The Katastwóf Karavan, and also seen in another piece of Walker’s, titled Darkytown Rebellion (2001). Darkytown Rebellion also uses black-on-white silhouettes that are overlaid with a colored projector to reflect on history and comment on racial stereotypes that still persist today. In this piece, Walker exaggerated facial features, clothing and violent body postures to allude to these perceived African American stereotypes. In both The Katastwóf Karavan and Darkytown Rebellion, a sense of illusion and concealment is are used to describe the silhouettes and their actions, which juxtaposes it with the stark color contrasts.
Citations
"Kara Walker." SFMOMA. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Kara_Walker
John D'Addario. “Art and History.” The New Orleans Advocate. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/entertainment_life/arts/article_47c7c422-1290-11e8-83af-438743cac644.html
Holland Cotter. "Black and White, But Never Simple." The New York Times. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/arts/design/12walk.html