Monday, November 14, 2011

Research Paper : Kara Walker



Kara Walker, is an interesting figure in Afro American Art! Kara Walker was born in 1969 in the city of Stockton a seaport city in California. Kara's Father Larry Walker, was an artist and chair of the art department at the University of the Pacific. Kara Walker, showed talents early in her adolesences but it wasn't until she turned 13, that she began to pursue her passion of creating pieces devoted to race. 




Kara Walker is interesting to me because I like how she incorporates such an old time, in a new style of artwork. My Goal is to be a Filmmaker and Kara Walker seems to tell a story in her artwork. Kara Walker seems to teleport me to a Time, when black people did not have the rights we enjoy today as human beings.  Kara Walker seems to have kind of created an animation style, that is similar to silhouette animation, but it is really cool and interesting.

Kara Walker implores such powerful images, that really speaks to each part of the Human Experience.
Kara Walker whom was brought up in the early 80's and late 90's, seamed to be really connected to race issues, which was interesting to me because in that time period, race issues was as Big as they where in the decade she was born. So, Kara seemed to sojourn and really bring to minds of the community that views her artwork, that racism is still live and well, and that we should wake up and confront these issues and ultimately erradicate them. I like how Kara Walker stages little cinemas in her artwork, and her scenes are really quite extraordinary,  and what she is able to do in her artwork, is what take Big productions millions of dollars to accomplish. Her images really speak, without the use of any text, and I really want to become better in my area of design. She really inspires me because I am a Filmmaker and I really see what she is trying to do  in her artwork, and i really want to incorporate that in my pieces.

Kara Walker also touched on gender and sexual roles in her pieces and she really pushes the envelope, challenging what people would considered right and moral in art. Kara Walker Images really show that sexual devaluing is very serious in america, and what people considers the right way to have sex. Kara really exposes the taboo's and hangups we have in society about the subject of sex, and how hypocritcal we can be in how we judge people for there sexual ideals. Kara also showed in her artwork that woman are really dominated in this soceity and in sexual roles, but woman use the power of there sexuality to take back ownership of there roles in sexuality. Its is really interesting because in parts of Europe they are more evolved in there views of sex then we are as a civilized and industrial in this World and maybe Kara in her little way may help to move us into are proper place of thinking about sex, race, and gender roles in America




1 comment:

  1. You mention that you think her style is "cool and interesting" and I would challenge you to try to really figure out, in terms of formal qualities, what exactly makes it tick. Since you also mention she inspires you to become "better in my area of design" this could be an important artist for you to study further. Also do you think her very honest and personal point of view is something we get in America in any other outlet beyond the world of art? It seems like a conversation this country is still not sure how to deal with? I took off a couple points simply for grammar and typos but overall I'm glad you found a contemporary artist you are inspired by. Score: 8/10

    Check out her interview in this episode of ART21: http://video.pbs.org/video/1237715781/

    ReplyDelete