Response to: “My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love” by Kara Walker
Posted on October 15, 2007
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“Blackness… a very loaded subject, a very loaded thing to be…” I partially agree with Ms. Walker on this subject. “Blackness” is a very heavy burden. The burden increases or decreases depending upon the environment and people around you. Only the fortunate can attest to not being demeaned or insulted simply because of the high melanin content of their skin. It is much easier to face your history, your ethnicity, your blackness or even yourself when others around you look and think the way you do.
The Kara Walker exhibit brought a range of emotions and questions to mind. Each painting, silhouette and movie that I paused to observed rubbed me an entirely different way. Quite frankly who does this woman think she is? Why are these crude, stereotypical, racist, sexist and somewhat graphic images have to say about ME and MY experiences? What deity made her the voice of the black/female experience in twenty first century America? Why does her interpretation cause my brow to furrow and my mouth to hang agape at a piece of artwork? All convention was simply thrown out of the window. This isn’t the modern art that makes you feel good about yourself because you can easily say that if you wanted to you could do what that artist did. It simply cannot be done. Ms. Walker is truly a prolific artist. Her mastery of the different artistic media proves that she isn’t simply an angry black woman fooling around in a studio. As an artist the last thing she wanted was a passive viewer. If anything, it is simply impossible to breeze passively past these works of art. The images seem cartoonish and have a feigned innocence, but as one observes a little closer one realizes that this is not for children. I felt childish an moved looking a her work. The projections against the wall were the most moving for me. The dark figures against the color- splashed background were comprehensible for me. I wasn’t overwhelmed because the message was clear: Mistress asked for something and it was swiftly given to her- death. Quite frankly the intensity of this particular slide, is much more subdued than the rest of her work. This piece was loaded, but unlike the rest of the exhibit, it didn’t explode in your face.
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