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KARA WALKER
8 NOVEMBER - 18 JANUARY 2009
Since her first exhibition in New York in 1994 the American artist Kara Walker has
explored fundamental issues concerning race and gender. In her imagery, primarily
inspired from the time around the American Civil War, she unfolds history and its
extensive racism in order to question present problems in the depiction of race, sexuality,
gender and identity. The often very beautiful and seductive works are in stark contrast to
the actual motifs, where violence and abuse typically characterize the relation between the
depicted figures. In spite of the seriousness of her topic Walker employs a high degree of
humour - from the cynical to the sarcastic – and the result is a clear break with political
correctness that often characterizes our dealing with these issues.
The exhibition presents a wide range of the various media that Kara Walker uses.
Drawing, painting, shadow puppetry, video animation, light projections and her artistic
trademark – the man-size silhouette cuts. The choice of medium is of great significance
as she purposely attempts to distance herself from traditional ways of creating
sculptures, paintings and installations in favour of a deeply personal universe where the
expression and history of the medium supports the contents of the work.
Kara Walker (b.1969 in Californien) moved to Atlanta, Georgia as a child. She has
ascribed this place great importance to her later choice of artistic subject as she in the
South, as opposed to in California, experienced a different focus on race and how race
issues influenced the relation between the different sections of the population. She is
educated from Atlanta College of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. The exhibition at
GL STRAND is a concentrate of a large solo exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My
Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, which among other places has been exhibited at Walker
Art Centre in Minneapolis, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and Musee d’Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Kara Walker is associate professor at Colombia University
in New York where she lives and works.
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> GL STRAND'S VISION
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