243. Darkytown Rebellion

 

Darkytown Rebellion 
Kara Walker. 2001 C.E. Cut paper and projection on wall.

Black silhouettes against colorful background, sharp lines, distinct and defined shapes. The actual subject of the work is meant to reflect the antebellum South during the time of slavery. Many southern African-American stereotypes are still present today and Walker hoped to make viewers realize how subconsciously they had these premeditated ideas about the figures and the assumptions about race they automatically made because of popular culture

FORM: 

paper cut silhouettes and light projection; 37 feet wide; nightmarish

FUNCTION: 

force viewers to confront the legacy of racism and slavery as well as the insistent romanticising and whitewashing through which we typically understand that legacy

CONTENT: 

silhouettes mask race but positions/actions give some clues; entire people reduced to just the outlines of their faces and clothing, speaking to the anonymity and ubiquity of slavery; looks like a cartoon character, a shadow, a piece of paper, out of scale - refers to your own shadow like a mirror effect, and to some extent purity; black silhouette mimicked the reductiveness of a cliche, a negative characterization intended to oversimplify a particular group or behavior

CONTEXT: 

influence from testimonial slave narratives, historical novels, and minstrel shows; influenced by the pseudoscience of physiognomy - claimed that one's character could be determined by their profile alone, so Walker used this idea about the reduction of human beings to their physical form.

KARA WALKER: "California-born, New York-based, African-American artist"

"I’m not making work about reality; I’m making work about images. I'm making work about fictions that have been handed down to me, and I'm interested in those fictions because I'm an artist, and any sort of attempt at getting at the truth of a thing, you kind of have to wade through these levels of fictions, and that's where the work is coming from.” - Kara Walker (about her work in general)

DARKYTOWN REBELLION:

• "Walker discovered a landscape painting in American Primitive Painting, a book featuring artwork by unschooled artists. One anonymous landscape, mysteriously titled Darkytown, intrigued Walker and inspired her to remove the over-sized African-American caricatures. She placed them, along with more figures (a jockey, a rebel, and others), within a scene of rebellion, hence the re-worked title of her 2001 installation."
• Created by:

1. drawing silhouettes on black paper (with a greasy white pencil or a pastel crayon)
2. cutting the images out
3. adhering these silhouettes to the wall (with wax)
4. projecting colored light onto the walls (used to heighten the surreality of the scene)
• this creates shadows that interact with the black figures/images

• Walker created this piece to explore "African-Americans in the antebellum South" 
• hence the flag that resembles a colonial ship sail + the silhouette with only one leg + the woman aborting a child + to the woman caring for newborns
• a narrative piece (depicts a "nightmarish scene" with 12+ characters) + an interactive piece (we are meant to be a part of it, just as we are a part of history)
• "the historical representation of African Americans in American visual culture"
• emphasizes concealment & anonymity & ambiguity

Cross-Cultural Comparisons: Wall Surfaces

1. Laucaux Caves, Great Hall of the Bulls
2. Tomb of the Triclinium
3. Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling