Im not really about blackness, per se, but about blackness and whiteness, and what they mean and how they interact with one another and what power is all about.
Kara WalkerI didnโt want a completely passive viewer. Art means too much to me. To be able to articulate something visually is really an important thing. I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldnโt walk away; he would giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful
Kara WalkerSugar crystallizes something in our American Soul. It is emblematic of all Industrial Processes. And of the idea of becoming white. White Being equated with pure and โtrueโ it takes a lot of energy to turn brown things into white things. A lot of pressure.
Kara WalkerA lot of my work has been about the unexpectedโthat kind of wanting to be the heroine and yet wanting to kill the heroine at the same time. That kind of dilemmaโthat push and pullโis the underlying turbulence that I bring to each of the pieces that I make.
Kara Walker