In her first London solo exhibition, American artist Kara Walker brought together several important bodies of work across all three gallery spaces at Camden Art Centre
Renouncing the sensitivity that often shrouds the subject, Walker’s work critically and unapologetically interrogates underlying racial and gender tensions. Through characters drawn from American popular literature, culture and history, she exposes the myths that lie beneath cultural archetypes and the darker aspects of human behaviour.
Walker’s work reflects her research into the white supremacist movement and gun culture in the US. Peopled with subjects from both past and contemporary history, her work weaves together historical documents of slavery with more recent racial issues.
The exhibition at Camden Art Centre brought together several important bodies of Walker’s work. Dust Jackets for the Niggerati is a series of large graphite drawings, conceived as book covers for unwritten essays and works of fiction, which investigates pivotal transitions in black American history and the missing narratives of the black migration. Shown alongside a video installation of her shadow play Fall Frum Grace- Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale and intricately cut silhouette installations, the ‘wall samplers’, the exhibition addressed highly-charged subjects of repression, discrimination and sexual violence.
Connecting all of the work was an examination of power, racial myths and stereotypes. Using graphically simple and traditional media, Walker articulates suffering and violence within American history that continues to resonate in society today.
