Questions about the exhibit:
1. The title of the exhibit was "The Emancipation Approximation."
2. The theme of the exhibit was the antebellum American South. The artist, Kara Walker, uses a silhouette format to force viewers to engage with historical, yet still relevant, racist portrayals of African Americans. The title is a play on words referencing Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, & the images that allude to the atrocities of slavery, are coupled with Greek mythological references.
Questions about the physical space:
1. The lighting used for this exhibit were lights in a recessed part of the ceiling, placed approximately every 3 & 1/2 feet.
2. The color used on the walls was all white.
3. There were no other materials used in the interior architecture of the space.
4. The movement of the viewer through the gallery space was first down a hallway, where all the pictures hung on the left side of the wall only. In this section, all the prints were white background, with black figures.
The viewer then proceeds around a corner into another portion of the hallway.
Here, the pictures hang on both sides of the hallway, but are all reversed in their color scheme; black background, with white figures.
Questions about the artwork:
1. The artworks were organized, hanging at eye-level, well lit, evenly spaced along the walls. Some of the images on the prints even flowed into the one hung next to them as you can see in the next 2 pictures.
2. The artworks were all similar in their color schemes. Only black & white were used for all the prints.
Some of them had a white background with white figures.
Some had a black background with white figures.
3. The artworks were each different in their content. Although the theme of them all was the same, each picture was completely different.
4. The artworks were all framed in plain black frame that looked like basic black poster frames.
5. Each individual artwork was not separately identified or labeled. They were all in the Contemporary Collection, & viewed as a complete set.
6. The artworks were hung approximately a foot & 1/2 apart on the wall along the hallway.
Analyze 3 artworks:
The artist for all of these works is Kara Walker. They are not separately titled, but are all part of Walker's collection titled "The Emancipation Approximation." They are dated from 2000, are approximately 2 & 1/2 feet in width by 3 & 1/2 feet in height. They are all screen prints on paper. The source of all 3 pictures is The Albright-Knox Gallery.
Visually, the picture shows what appears to be 2 men facing one another, covered in bird poop from a tiny white bird in the upper left of the picture.
Emphasis, subordination, & scale are all used in the drastic size difference between the men & the almost unnoticed bird in the corner. Color is utilized in such a way that even though the bird is so small, since it, & its poop are the contrasting white against an otherwise black background, it is still a noticeable element in the picture, even though it was the last thing I saws. Once it was noticed the entire picture made more sense, & the bird becomes a major part of the picture.
I think the metaphor I got from this is that even a little thing can cause a lot of shit.
If I had to interpret this picture, based on the collection in its entirety, I might think that the white bird pooping all over the 2 black men might be representative of whites pooping all over African Americans in our countries history.
Visually, this picture shows 2 black figures walking across a white background, one a grown man crying, & one a young boy who is talking to the older man. There are small black clouds in the sky.
Motion is portrayed in this picture by the stance of the 2 figures, & the position of their legs. Again color is used, this time making the 2 figures the main focus of the picture.
I did not find any metaphors from this picture.
My interpretation of this picture is that the little boy may have brought the older gentleman some bad news & that is why he is crying, & that they are going together to whatever it was that so upset the man.
Visually, this picture is as bit shocking, but again, based on the content of the collection in its entirety, not the worst, by far. There are 2 black angels in the upper right corner of the picture. The background is white. The center of the picture shows a well dressed man sitting on the back of a crouching woman, about to receive oral sex from another woman crouching in front of him.
Again color is used in the stark black & white only content of the picture. The angels in the corner are subordinate figures of the pictures, & the trio in the front are with out a doubt the dominant figures, placing the emphasis on them.
The symbolism of this picture says that during the time of slavery, African American women were used as more than just slaves.
I would interpret this picture, based on the subject matter of the entire series, as being 2 slave women, one being used as a seat, & the other being used for sexual gratification, possible by their master.
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