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Changing topics in class, we have now focused more on race and racial problems within history. There are two specific people who have greatly influenced the public on this subject with their art; Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley.
Kara Walker’s art is made out of black paper plastered on white walls. The subject focuses on people, but they’re all silhouettes. They range in size and shape and all seem to give off a storybook type of feel. Because they are silhouettes, it leaves the viewer up to their imagination to fill in the gaps where there is no detail. This makes Kara’s art able to be interpreted in a large amount of different ways. Here are a couple of examples of her work:
Kehinde Wiley, on the other hand, has more of the traditional painting style. Usually it’s a painting on canvas, but the subjects have a twist to them. If any viewer knows their history, they will immediately recognize what’s going on in Wiley’s paintings, because he copies similar poses of famous historical art. The only difference is that his subjects are more focused on African Americans. He will portray an ordinary person from the street positioned as a well-known figure from history. Here are a couple examples of his work:
How have these works inspired the public? With Kara’s works, they blatantly show the struggles of slaves being overpowered by whites. They show deals being made between people, lies being told, and both children and adults dying. It’s a very graphic scene once the viewer looks behind the graceful lines of each cutout. But it’s not all for show and creativity. These images make the viewer think about what actions have taken place back when slavery was at its highest. For example, in her work “Camptown Ladies,” it depicts a scout boy riding on the back of a girl, presumably a slave, and leading her with a carrot. The obvious message here is the dominance of the white boy over the girl. While in the next image, “Hunting Scene,” it depicts both white people and African Americans burning the heads of people of the opposite race. This can show how each race has a hatred for one another.
With Kehinde Wiley’s art, it strikes the viewer immediately with the image of an average African American wearing street clothes, but being portrayed as a figure with a higher rank. This confuses the viewer at first, because it was engraved into their minds to only know that Jesus, or some well known and praised king, should be worthy enough to being viewed in such a manner. But instead, these selected African Americans from any regular street corner are being shown holding up one hand, such as a prophet would, or riding along the back of a white horse, similar to the fashion of Napoleon leading his army. This is a way of stating that power can come to anyone, even the average everyday person. It is an image that shows the viewers not to judge people by their skin color, but by their mindset. It is a statement that tells people to change their views on racial differences and realize that people are people, no matter what color of skin they have.
Because of this kind of art being made to this day, I would say that despite us being in a “post-racial” society, we are not fully away from the past issues. There are still people out there who degrade others because of how they look, or what they wear. Though, there has been much progress since the times when slavery was at its highest. We have allowed many African Americans to rise above low standards in life and gain positions of power in some way. But as long as these artworks are still being created, I believe that the world is still judging others.