Kara Walker

historical narratives haunted by sexuality, violence, and subjugation but made using the genteel 18th-century art of cut-paper silhouettes. Set in the American South before the Civil War, Walker’s compositions play off stereotypes to portray, often grotesquely, life on the plantation, where masters and mistresses and slave men, women, and children... See more

Key reasons for using silhouettes Confronting racial and sexual stereotypes: Walker uses the simplistic form of silhouettes to depict caricatured figures that are based on harmful stereotypes, highlighting how racial stereotypes are "reductions of actual human beings".Creating ambiguity and audience complicity: By leaving out facial features, the... See more

Kara Walker is vooral bekend om haar openhartige onderzoek naar ras, gender, seksualiteit en geweld, aan de hand van silhouetten van figuren die te zien zijn op talloze tentoonstellingen over de hele wereld.