Kara Walker Exhibition - Jasmine Carayol
Posted on October 15, 2007
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Jasmine Carayol
CHC 100, Section 005
October 12, 2007
Kara Walker Exhibition
Overall, the Kara Walker exhibition at the Whitney Museum was extremely disturbing. Something about the shadowy figures, engaged in moments that conveyed historical violence, pain, and suffering was extremely eerie. The content of Walker’s art is nothing new to me, due to my knowledge of the history of black exploitation, degradation, and objectification at the hands of whites, during and after times of slavery. I feel that the images Walker presents are disturbing despite the known historical background because they are issues that people tend to deny. Most, myself included, recognize and respect the suffering and struggle that blacks have faced throughout history. Yet the historical struggle and suffering is something that is vaguely remembered and pushed to the back of the mind. Most prefer not to specifically recall the details of the white oppression of blacks. It is far more comforting to think of such atrocities blurrily, as a thing of the past that only distantly relates to and explains the racially charged events that occur today. Walker’s exhibition does exactly the opposite. Walker’s art is disconcerting purely because it is direct, honest, and very graphically and vividly depicts things that people today prefer not to think about but are provoked to do so by her art. I also found that the words that Walker chose for her caption made me uncomfortable. Although the words “Negro” and “Negress” are not the most inflammatory choices possible, they are a relic of another era, and are still politically incorrect, offensive ways of referring to black people. It is clear that Walker sought to evoke emotion and awareness, yet the only emotion I felt was a vague uneasiness instead of the anger or empathy she most likely intended to create.
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