Grio100: Kara Walker, activism through art
By Talia Whyte
Slavery left an indelible mark on the American psyche, and African-Americans have many different ways of exploring this part of history. Artist Kara Walker explores the racial and sexual politics of the Antebellum South through her black cut-paper silhouettes. One of her best-known pieces is The Battle of Atlanta, a 400-foot painting which graphically depicts the literal and figurative rape of black females by white males during the Civil War.
“All of the bad vibes, the bad feelings, all of the nastiness, and all of the sort of vulgar associations with blackness, and the more base associations in this culture about Black Americans or Africans bubble up to the surface of my brain and spill out into this work,” said Walker in a 1999 interview with the Museum of Modern Art.
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