Licensing Resources
They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another)
2001
2002.1A-P
On display in K212
Artwork Details
168 x 168 x 240 in. (installation)
Accession NumberGift of the Contemporary Art Society
CopyrightProvenance
Provenance
Artist; (Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York, New York): purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana in 2002.
Gallery Labels
Gallery Labels
In this installation, characters cut from black paper perform mysterious actions before the projected backdrop of a great steamboat. A boy bears a miniature battleship on his head, a woman waves a handkerchief while a seemingly monstrous baby teeters on her bustle, a shoe becomes a hoof-like appendage, a figure raises a portrait bust. In smaller cutout vignettes, a woman points a gun at a man's back, and lovers embrace.
Kara Walker draws from familiar narratives of the past to offer a challenging picture of history. Placing dress, machinery, and gestures associated with the antebellum South in unexpected arrangements, Walker's work exploits the ambiguity of race-relations in United States history. The viewer's shadow enters this tableau as a participant or visible witness. The projected background places the silhouettes in perspective. Similarly, Walker's work suggests that perspectives on history are marked by projections of one's self upon views of the past.
Exhibition History
Exhibition History
Exhibition Name
Venue
Dates
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