BLACK HISTORY MONTH: KARA WALKER

We've mentioned Kara Walker a bit before when we did a post about Cutting Paper as an art form. But now is the chance to really dive into what her artwork is really about.

The major themes that fill Walker's work with meaning are conversations of race, gender, sexuality, and fantasy. She hits upon the power struggle in these subjects such as what is real or fiction in history, what we desire verse what we shame through her minimalistic narrative scenes.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/kara-walker

Race: Even though all of her figures are cut out of black paper she purposefully exaggerates features and clothing of a person to make them a certain ethnicity. This only further pushes the sense of humor within her pieces because of the exaggerations, but it also creates a statement of the fact that us as the viewer knows what she is referring to because of stereotype and caricature.

Installation view of Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2007) Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/KaraWalker

Desire and Shame: Walker has described America's national pastime as "loving to hate what we hate to love" (Do You Like Creme in your Coffee or Chocolate In Your Milk? 1997) which perfectly sums up how society has viewed certain situations and events. In reaction, Walker's work leads to controversy over the combination of violence, humor, and sexuality in whether what she is portraying is taboo in relation to theme of history and slavery. Her work also doesn't necessarily portray the characters as right or wrong, leading to viewer to create their own moral decision.

http://www.alanaveryartcompany.com/kara-walker/

Historic? or Fantasy?: Although her characters are depicted in the South pre- Civil War, she never depicts anything specific to history. However, Walker's work is a comment on what we are taught and then twists in fantasy and an exaggerated truth to create her own historic stories. A combination of "southern romance novels, historical fiction, slave narratives, and contemporary novels" creates her version of storytelling.

Kara Walker, The Renaissance Society, 1997  http://gallery400.uic.edu/blog/from-the-archive-kara-walkers-voices-lecture-at-gallery-400-1997

Kara Walker, Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civic War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart, 1994

COLLAGE ART: SURREAL IMAGERY OR SIMPLE BRAINSTORMING?

Collages are sometimes linked with childhood art projects, but how about collages that bring flawless surreal imagery together?

The idea of collaging is often a way to put all of your favorite ideas or thoughts together. But what about thinking out of the box and creating something completely new and imaginative... without just using Photoshop. Painstakingly cutting and arranging images found from encyclopedias to magazines can lead to some amazingly creative works and creating worlds that bring up issues or thoughts some of us may have never even thought of before.

One artist named Sato Masahiro, or Q-TA, uses both digital and analog techniques to create nostalgia based imagery. When in an interview with Revolution 360, the artist says "The reason that the majority of my work has young children is that I would like to show a new way of thinking by offering the audience, children’s view of the world and also placing children in those worlds." Just take a look at some of Q-TA's pieces for example:

  

But lets step back a second, haven't we seen innovative collaging before? Man Ray? John Stezaker? Hannah Höch? 

Man Ray for example was a significant component to the Dada and Surrealism Movements. He considered himself a painter over all but he also dabbled in photography and collage. He uses collage in two different ways (mainly photographic): in camera collaging and photogram collaging, which he appropriately called "Rayographs". Both forms of collaging but approached differently. In the top photo, Observation Time: The Lovers, Man Ray sets up the entire scene in front of the camera and takes a photo. In the other he uses random objects and sets them on top of the emulsion to create the shadows.

Man Ray, Observatory Time: The Lovers, photograph, 1936

Man Ray, Rayograph, 1922, Silver Gelatin Print, © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Either way collages can be attempted in various formats and mediums. Some artists use it as a way of planning out their creations or simple brainstorming, others use it as their actual medium. Sometimes they are used to create surreal worlds, or they are used to create an aesthetically or even psychologically pleasing work of art. Any way you look at it collaging leads to a very simplistic form of creating. So, you you're ever lacking ideas start a collage and see where it leads you!

Sources/Related Articles:

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/3318/Top_10_Collage_Artists_Hannah_H%C3%B6ch_to_Man_Ray
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/sato-masahiro-q-ta-collages?context=tag-art

CUTTING PAPER IS AN ART

There have been times where I've seen something posted on Tumblr of gorgeously intricate hand cut paper. And I think "Oh that's pretty cool, I bet it takes a lot of time" and that is it. I never really think about it again. Well, more recently I keep coming across these artists who cut paper and create these incredible and I mean INCREDIBLE pieces of art out of the shadows and the holes and it blows my mind. So naturally I looked more into it...

So Paper Art or Papercutting originated in China from the 6th Century Six Dynasties period called Jianzhi. They would be used as health, prosperity, or decorative purposes and would often include symbols from the color red to the Chinese Zodiac. 

Example of Jianzhi

A lot of the more notable artists to come out of the Papercutting scene were more Dutch and American artists. One you probably have heard of is Kara Walker, who creates these wondrous silhouettes confronting many issues such as race, gender, sexuality, and violence . But they don't always have to be just 2D designs, many artists in contemporary art have voyaged into 3D sculptures of paper such as artist Nahoko Kojima.

Kara Walker, Grub for Sharks: A Concession to the Negro Populace, black paper, 2004

Nahoko Kojima, Jerwood, Byako, paper, 2013

Many other artists have been working with this technique but are still trying to get their name out there are artists like Rogan Brown and Kuin Heuff. Rogan Brown is inspired by natural and minerals for his very intricate forms and Kuin starts by painting her faces and then cutting them.

Rogan Brown, Spore, paper, 2013

Kuin Heuff, Greta Heuff-Heg, acyrlic and paper, 2011

I think the whole technique and design aspects are very interesting and inspiring. The amount of effort plus a steady hand really is hard to come by today so I find it very exciting. If anyone knows of any other artists that do Papercutting then please share!! Otherwise, we can just sit and stare at these amazing works for another few hours (which I'm totally okay with).

Artist Websites:
Kara Walker: http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker
Nahoko Kojima:  http://www.nahokokojima.com/
Kuin Heuff: http://www.kuinheuff.nl/index.php
Rogan Brown: http://roganbrown.com/home.html
Other Websites with cool Papercutting articles: 
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/rogan-brown-paper-sculptures