Kara Walker – The Bush. Skinny. De-boning
Kara Walker’s 2002 sculpture The Bush, Skinny, De-Boning uses silhouetted forms to depict how the violence of slavery reverberates within Black communities. Across three panels, Walker shows a woman turning a hoe against herself, forcing a child to consume a phallic object, and grappling with a dismembered head—each act revealing how internalized trauma and inherited pain take root. The work confronts the impossibility of clean separation from racial violence, suggesting that its legacy persists through both bloodlines and memory.
“Kara Walker’s unwieldy imagination is fixated with race in the starkest and most American of terms, black and white, as they were forged in the ante-bellum South, a time not so long ago in a galaxy called here.” – Hamza Walker, Parkett No. 59, 2000
Kara Walker stands as a trailblazing artist, renowned for her provocative and visually stunning explorations of race, gender, and identity in America. Born in 1969 in Stockton, California, Walker rose to prominence in the 1990s with her distinctive silhouette installations, collages and prints that challenge historical narratives and delve into the complex layers of American history. Kara Walker‘s artwork is characterized by its use of black cut-paper silhouettes, a form reminiscent of 19th-century silhouette portraiture. Yet, her artworks transcend tradition by subverting the quaintness associated with the medium. Instead, Walker confronts uncomfortable truths about the nation’s past, particularly its legacy of slavery. Her silhouettes, often life-sized and arranged in narrative tableaux, depict unsettling scenes that force viewers to confront the harsh realities of racism and its enduring impact. Kara Walker’s collages and fine art prints exhibit a remarkable fusion of technical skill and conceptual depth. The stark contrast between black and white in her artwork enhances the emotional intensity of her narratives, drawing viewers into the uncomfortable yet necessary dialogue about race and power. The subtle nuances in her use of line and shadow in printmaking echo the complexities of the stories she tells, inviting viewers to engage in a nuanced exploration of history and identity. Kara Walker’s artistic prowess came to the forefront with her groundbreaking 2007 solo exhibition, Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, showcasing the power of her provocative artworks. The show travelled on to Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; and the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth. Further major solo exhibitions were held at Kunstmuseum Basel (2021), Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2019) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2006).
