[Images from a book containing text with protruding black silhouetted scenes. One spread contains a white background with several black silhouetted figures placed on rocks with objects reenacting slave activities. There is text behind discussing their role in American society. The next spread also contains a white background with black silhouette cut outs of a figure laying beneath a palm tree and images of the ocean and an island silhouetted into the background, focused on meditation.]
Kara Walker
Freedom, a Fable: A Curious Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled Times
1997 Norton Christmas Project
, 1997
Artwork Type: Prints
Medium: Bound volume of offset lithographs and five laser-cut, pop-up silhouettes
Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 2 in.
Accession #: 19971252
Credit: Collection of University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York on behalf of The University at Albany Foundation, gift of Peter Norton Christmas Project
Related Exhibitions:
American Playlist: Selections From The University At Albany Art Collections
Persuasive Images: Selected Works from the Art Collections at the University at Albany
Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections
Copyright: © Kara Walker
Object Label:
Show Object Label(s)Kara Walker’s (b. 1969, American)
work deals with themes of power,
repression, race, history, and sexuality.
Walker employs jet-black cut-out
silhouettes of figures to express these
ideas. Commissioned as part of the
Peter Norton Family Christmas Project,*
the popup book tells the story of a young
black woman who has recently been
emancipated after the Civil War, but
dreams of “going back to Africa.” In the
artist’s construction of the fable, Walker
questions the realities of what freedom
means and whether one can be free
in a ruling-class society. Through her
process of combining visceral imagery
and narrative, the artist reveals that which
is often left unspoken and misconstrued
about race.
–Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections
–American Playlist: Selections From The University At Albany Art Collections
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