In 2011, Kara Walker gave a presentation about her work for The Menil Collection. Walker received her MFA in painting and printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Kara Walker is an accredited artist known for her politically satirical work regarding race and gender. In her presentation, Kara shows her large-scale paper silhouettes of the Antebellum South which question representations of slavery and racism in American history.
In the beginning of her presentation, Kara explains that she works through various mediums such as drawing, painting, writing, and printmaking. However, her primary medium of choice is paper silhouettes. An interesting thing Kara said in regards to why she chooses to cut paper rather than use other mediums is that she wants to limit her hand when creating art. By this, she means she wants to eliminate the potential for excessive expressiveness which can become relevant in other mediums—like painting, for example. Essentially, Kara wanted to challenge herself to tell a story through forms rather than fully rendered images and paintings. I found this to be very interesting and inspiring. In my own work as an artist, I often strive for realism, but Kara has shown me that realism is not the only way to tell a story. Forms and color are capable of telling powerful narratives that impact the viewer in numerous ways.
Later on in her presentation, Kara states that she wanted to venture into using film as a medium for her art, but was afraid she would be unable to effectively use the camera. As a result, she began to incorporate projections into her art alongside her paper silhouettes. The images she showed of her work were truly beautiful and powerful representations of slavery. I found Kara’s use of projections to be incredibly effective as the lights and colors became additional layers of meaning and complexity for the viewer to interpret. Kara’s focus on telling a story through creating a series of silhouettes was very inspiring to an aspiring animator because it shows how important key frames and composition is. Kara was able to tell an entire story through three pieces—storyboards, as she referred to them.
Overall, I found Kara Walker’s work to be very powerful. One of my favorite parts of her presentation was hearing her speak about how her pieces were developed and all the various shows she has participated in throughout her career.
Alex Menke 