Overview
Kara Walkerās work and its borrowings from an iconography linked to the fantasized and travestied history of American chattel slavery has been theorized and critiqued in countless texts throughout her career. Exegeses of her work have been shaped by the numerous debates on the very debates it generated. How, then, do we approach a work that has been covered by such āthick theoretical layersā? This collection is unique in emphasizing Walkerās work itself rather than the controversies surrounding it. These essays and interviews survey Walkerās artistic practice from her early works in the 1990s through her most recent ones, from her famous silhouette projects to her lesser-known drawings and lantern shows.
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The texts, by art historians, curators, critics, scholars, and writers engage scrupulously with Walkerās pieces as material works of art, putting them in the context of the sociopolitical and cultural environments that shapeābut never determineāthem. They include an interview of the artist by Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum in Harlem; an essay in the form of a lexicon, cataloguing key elements in Walkerās art, by curator Yasmil Raymond; and an essay by volume editor Vanina GĆ©rĆ© on Walkerās use of historical archives. Finally, novelist Zadie Smith considers Walkerās public art as counter-propositions to colonial monuments and as a reflection on colonial history.
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Contributors
Lorraine Morales Cox, Vanina GĆ©rĆ©, Thelma Golden, Tavia Nyongāo, Yasmil Raymond, Jerry Saltz, Zadie Smith, Anne M. Wagner, Hamza Walker
This book title, Kara Walker, ISBN: 9780262544474, by Vanina Gere, published by MIT Press (November 1, 2022) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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