Kara Walker

Walker's video works are directly related to the work that brought her fame: the wall installations of black-and-white silhouettes, cut from paper, in which she examines racial stereotypes, sexual inequality, violence and power relationships, while reflecting on the African diaspora and on the bloodshed resulting from race segregation in American southern states until the latter part of the twentieth century. In these color films the static silhouettes of Walker's cut-outs come to life, being animated in the form of a classic shadow play involving hand-operated puppets.

Walker's video installations are derived from true stories that she came across in American government archives. Preserved in these National Archives are documents that chronicle the violence experienced by Afro-American citizens during the Reconstruction Period (1865-77) following the American Civil War.

These works have no linear progression; actions unfold in a fragmentary and seemingly improvised manner. National Archives Microfilm M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Roadhas a soundtrack realized by the experimental jazz musician and artist Jason Moran (who recently had a show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.) This work represents the history of a black family who settles on abandoned land and attempts to build a new life there. Until a group of white men catches sight of the newcomers. The gang attacks the family, sets fire to the house, commits rape and murder.

As is often the case with Walker's work, her video works never involve explicit moralization about good and evil. They leave room for a highly personal, ambiguous interpretation. It is no coincidence that Walker characterizes herself as an 'unreliable narrator.' From an autonomous standpoint she gives consideration to the dark side of human nature and shakes up cultural archetypes, the images and myths of American history which continue to resonate today.