Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negrees and her Heart- Kara Walker

Subject matter

The subject matter of this work of Kara walker seem to show about the American civil war as she used ‘Gone’, the first word for her title from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel

‘Gone with the wind’. The importance of this piece of work seems to be the race, sexuality and slavery. This work seemed to be stereotypically about black history. The mood of this work seem to be relaxed and romantic. The artist is telling us how it must been at times like civil war and how black people have been treated as slaves and knowing the tough times in the past which she put it through in this specific art work.

Technique

Kara walker’s technique of this work is simply is the cut outs of black paper which is stuck against a white background. Kara walker discovered that silhouettes were the perfect way to show the racism and the sexism of stereotype of everyday life .Kara walker chose to do the silhouettes as it is about not knowing the subject properly which gives us to figure out what it is really about.

Artist‘s career

Kara walker is an African American artist whose works is about the race and sexuality, violence and slavery.  Kara walker was born In Stockton, California on November 26^th 1969. She went to Rhode Island School of Design. Kara walker exhibited her work in various places such as the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, the renaissance society in Chicago, the museum of modern art in new York, the San Francisco museum of modern and lots more.

Linking with own work

I’ve chosen Kara walker to link with my work as I like the how the story is told without having any detail from her piece of work which leads it to be more interesting to get know about her specific work. I also like the boldness of the black silhouettes which stands out from the white background.

Quotations

“I was overcome by the need to re-create a race based conflict, a need to feel a certain amount of pain…only problem is that I am too aware of my overzealous imagination interfering in the basic facts of history…A collusion of fact and fiction that has informed me probably  since day one”.