Kara Walker’s work is interesting in that it combines a bunch of extremely powerful and simple conflicting images to create a jarring effect on the viewer. The subjects never seem to have any self-awareness as to whats going on so that is really left to the viewer to do. This contributes to the feeling of how wrong things are. You are not told what’s wrong but showed what is wrong which is even more effective. My making the grotesque normal, it makes it harder to stomach.
This can be very effective and also extremely dangerous because it leads to incorrect assumptions or powerful misdirected emotional responses. For example, if you miss use a strong image with another extremely emotionally loaded image, it may cause someone to miss the intent of your work. In the case of Kara Walker, this does not seem to be true. She has very effectively used powerful visual cues with each other to make your brain hurt.
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