Research Paper - Part 4

http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Images.Kara-Walker-Presenting-Negro-Scenes-Drawn-Upon-My-Passage-Through-the-South-and-Reconfigured-for-the-Benefit-of-Enlightened-Audiences-Wherever-Such-May-Be-Found-By-Myself-Missus-KEB-Walker-Colored-Ethel-Hahn-on-the-Exhibition-Fine-Prints-Old-and-New.51.670.html


http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Images.Kara-Walker-Presenting-Negro-Scenes-Drawn-Upon-My-Passage-Through-the-South-and-Reconfigured-for-the-Benefit-of-Enlightened-Audiences-Wherever-Such-May-Be-Found-By-Myself-Missus-KEB-Walker-Colored.51.4952.html

Kara Walker displays the hardship and forced work of labor slaves had to do in order to survive. In this first silhouette, it shows a man sitting on a rock exhausted from playing with the instrument in his. He has a wind up on his back where you turn it and it’ll keep on doing an action until it stops then you repeat if you want to continue. There’s a little girl behind the man who looks like she’s sneaking up behind the tired man. She seems to want to wind up the man and play the instrument some more. I think the instrument represents the work and hard labor that slaves had to do. The wind up displays the time of how long the worker or man can play his instrument. The man’s fingers are lingering over the instrument, and he’s leaning forward if he’s going to fall or pass out. He’s like a wind up toy that you can play with at any time, yet when playing with it, it’ll break. The man is being used up many times that he’s going to breakdown as well. You can see how the man is tired by how his tongue is sticking out shows he’s out of breathe. Also you can see the outlines of his back as if his bones were sticking out of shirt. It shows how he’s weak and fragile at this point. The man is incapable to work any more, however the girl behind him does not think so. She is the controller, the boss, the commander, which is not right for she is just a child and the man is an adult. The girl is shown in well dressed clothes including a dress and a head bonnet while the man is wearing a tight shirt and pants. Although you man not see the colors or details within the silhouette, the outlines of it are well displayed. This silhouette can question many people, but the girl in the background made me wonder why she controls this grown man. The research about Kara Walker reports that she displays her works based on slavery. Then the man may be a black man controlled by a white girl. In the past, color only mattered to people and people who were different were discriminated against. It didn’t matter how old people were, only the skin color. I think Walker wanted to show how people were worked into exhaustion then into death using simple silhouettes to get her point of view out to the world. Also how people didn’t have a choice and it’s like they had a wind up on their backs so they had to do what they were commanded to do whenever and wherever. Walker has shown slavery using fantasized characters with a hidden message behind it all.

In this second silhouette, there is a girl flying away with the wind into the sky. There is also a boy with a man, most likely his father, blowing a dandelion. In the sky, along with the girl, are specks of the dandelion that the boy blew away. The girl seems hopeless and just floating away without any emotion or movement. I noticed how the girl’s legs are dangling and her head is tilted forward showing that her head is not held up high. Yet if her head were held up high then that’ll show hope. The legs that hang down display the emotionless and motionless characterization of the girl. The girl may be dead for she is not showing any sign of life. She might also be depressed and she’s floating off into a better world than the one she is now. There’s a parachute connected to the girl, which I think means so she can land safely somewhere. However, I think she is floating upwards into heaven and the parachute will help land her there. Along with specks of dandelion, it shows how she floats freely such as them. The parachute can be making her float into the air and the wind is flowing into the parachute allowing her to move upwards. It may also be a connection with the girl as she might’ve wanted to flow away from the world so she can be free. I also believe the other meaning to this silhouette by having the girl being sent free. The boy blowing into the dandelion displays how he’s sending her free along with his father by the boy’s side. It could mean a bad thing or a good thing. The bad part would be of how the girl could’ve died because of the boy and the father and they’re sending her off to heaven. The father may be encouraging the boy to set off the girl into heaven for he is the one who blew the dandelion and how the father is pushing the boy. However, the boy may not want to blow into the dandelion sending the girl to her fate. The good part would be how the girl is free because of how the boy and the father might’ve saved her and she’s going off into a better place. Also, I believe this involves with slavery and the captivity of how the girl must’ve felt during those times. There were people who would help slaves to have a better life and didn’t discriminate against them. However, there were people who were racist and worked slaves to death with no guilt afterwards. I see this silhouette has two opposite meanings to it and they contradict themselves. Yet when someone else may look at this silhouette and can see or think of more than two meanings. Each silhouette done by Walker, mostly involves a horrible a meaning behind it. The characters in the silhouettes may fool people because they are fantasized and drawn like a fairy tale. The looks of the pieces aren’t what they seem depending on how you view them. Each person’s views are different from each others, yet the true meaning are within the pieces.