Video: Installation by Kara E. Walker: Sugar Sphinx, Sugar Babies and a Bitter Chapter in Human History
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Sugar refining is a process in which raw cane is discolored, turning the brown mass into white crystals or powder. American contemporary artist Kara E. Walker saw deep symbolism in it, from which the concept of a new work - a giant white sphinx, installed in a former sugar factory was born.
The installation is called "Subtlety". A ten-meter high polystyrene sculpture rises in the middle of a spacious industrial building. A sugar-white woman with pronounced African features and a stern expression on her face kneels and elbows in an unnatural, obviously copying the Egyptian Sphinxes, posture, ready to answer the questions of unlucky wanderers.
The left hand of the mysterious sugar sphinx is folded in a gesture that is well known in our culture: the fingers are gathered into a fist in such a way that the thumb is clamped between the index and middle. The artist explains that, depending on the context, this sign can mean many different things: from one of the ancient symbols of fertility to a direct insult.
"Delicacy" sharply criticizes the stereotypes that for several centuries, in a double stream of racism and chauvinism, have descended on women of African descent in America. An arched back, a raised pelvis, emphatically "feminine" forms, a feline posture and exaggeratedly rough facial features remind viewers that until recently, the average white man perceived women with dark skin as an inanimate sexual object, incapable of human feelings and, therefore, not deserving of delicacy.
Near the sphinx in the hangar are several small sculptures of molasses-colored children. Sugar Babies stand along empty walls covered in a viscous, dark brown syrup extracted from raw sugar during the refining process. The artist explains that the one and a half meter figures are based on the once very popular porcelain trinkets, depicting small chubby slaves with baskets in which colorful caramels could be folded to offer to dear guests.
An earlier installation by Kara Walker is similar to a shadow theater show featuring about 100 silhouettes. It tells the story of a variety of historical events and important contemporary issues, including slavery, sexual violence, the rights of children and women.
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