A Subtlety
A Subtlety, by Kara Walker, is an incredible piece of sculpture. I, for one, I’m always impressed by the size. Every time I look at the Statue of Liberty, I’m amazed at its proportion. And so is Karas’ “A Subtlety,” it has a beautiful balance; and Kara Walkers’ “A Subtley” pushes boundaries to a level that’s uncomfortable for some folks.
She celebrates those features of black people that at one time were use to denigrate, caricature, and categorize. The Sambo, the gollywog, the coons; Latino’s have ‘El Negro Bembón.’ These proportions have a power that will relegate black folks to another cast of blackness. Or not black enough.
The insecure litmus test of the bees and wannabees of the upper class black American societies to determine if a black person was sufficiently black — ironically is white. The test to gain admittance or acceptance into these groups, are so endless you can write books: ass too big, not big enough; the ruler test, her hair is to something; brown paper bag test, it goes on. Well, to be honest, it’s not just black folks. Every culture is always looking for an advantage over their kin—human nature.
I love Kara Walker’s work. She celebrates her proportions in her art. And she likes them: African black, Congo black, Mandingo black. I believe She never gave much attention to the people who told her full lips, and nappy hairs are not beautiful, or maybe she’s defiant with persons who did. Looking at her work, they are symbols of beauty; Not that personal beauty stuff but intrinsic goodness lust-full beauty’ The kind that will keep you away from God, like Robert Mapplethorpe’s lust for black men, or hip-hop rappers lust for light skin girls with long hair. Kara Walkers’ love for black is cultivated in childhood, defiant; Say It Loud – I’m Black, and I’m Proud.
I agree with the premise that “A Subtlety,” aka the “Marvelous Sugar Baby.” Subtitle: “An Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans, who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World; on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant” is an homage to the black women. Who was exploited in the West Indies cane-fields, cultivating sugar that would enrich the continent of Europe in ways that are not acknowledged or recognized? Like the Tate modern art collection, possible by the proceeds from Lyle & Tate sugar production — which is true.
In her Washington Post article, Mrs. Walker sights many of her reading references: “The Book of Night Women,” by Marlon James; “Conquistadora,” by Esmeralda Santiago; My favorite was not there Andrea Stuart’s “Sugar in the Blood”. By far the best account of the sugar production in the Caribbean and how it’s mélange with the lives of the population as Andrea Stuart says:
“With the book, what I didn’t want was for my conclusion to be about blame. I wanted it to be about acknowledgment and remembering because those were the things that came out of it for me. And the fact is, we hold in ourselves so many histories. Normally so much of the narrative around race is to try to make people feel bad, rather than to make them do better. And actually, I’d just prefer them to do better.”
I agree, and I do not make the correlation that my color gives me a moral pedestal to look down and shame other humans who do not share my genetic gift—So, I come to a problem. A Subtlety celebrates racism. No different from David Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation or The Nation of Islam; it caters to a group based on skin color.
But is this a problem in her work? Not really, Hers is a topic of much-needed discussion. And Mrs. Walker has been pushing this subject without fear of repercussion from any group; even protest from devious spiteful repressed African-American artists and collectors did not stop her. Whose only power they have, is guilty. You’re embarrassing black folks in those white galleries with your nappy hair and big lips…. She is brave.
SELF-LOATHING
There is a pain of self-loathing that comes with being black in America. In Tony Morrison “The Blues Eyes,”
(Spark Notes) The theme provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. Implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere, including the white baby doll given to Claudia… the consensus that light-skinned Maureen is cuter than the other black girls, the idealization of white beauty in the movies, and Pauline Breedlove’s preference for the little white girl she works for over her daughter. Adult women, having learned to hate the blackness of their bodies, take this hatred out of their children—Mrs. Breedlove shares the conviction that Pecola is ugly, and lighter-skinned Geraldine curses Pecola’s blackness. Claudia remains free from this worship of whiteness, imagining Pecola’s unborn baby as beautiful in its darkness. But it is hinted that once Claudia reaches adolescence, she too will learn to hate herself as if racial self-loathing were a necessary part of maturation.
The person who suffers most from white beauty standards is, of course, Pecola. She connects white ecstatics of beauty with loved and believes that if she possesses “blue eyes” the cruelty of her life will be replaced by affection and respect. This desperate desire leads ultimately to madness, suggesting that the fulfillment of the wish for white beauty may be even more tragic than the wish-impulse itself…
And some black folks will never understand why bell hooks called Beyoncé a “terrorist.”
What an excellent book! … Kara walkers’ sculpture is here to remind us that she will not be complicit she is using art as a vehicle for cognitive introspection guilt— She ain’t taking shit from anyone about her looks— and a worthy goal.
I believe Kara Walker is comfortable in her skin. Look at her, she looks at the piece. Kara Walker is not conforming to anybody’s standard of beauty but her own… I hope that sentence doesn’t sound like she is a homely looking woman like Whoopi Goldberg in her role of Celie Harris, in “The Color Purple,” whom I think is beautiful…OK, that didn’t help either.
‘A Subtlety’ the art
Back to ‘A Subtlety,’ I like the commentaries. Kara Walker’s work did what it was supposed to do. It raises questions. It Justifies anger towards (dead old) white people. It makes us feel guilty, It makes white folks feel guilty. Hopefully, we’ll ask why do I feel this way?
‘A Subtlety’ the art is done. However, it has developed. It’s constantly evolving with our interactions, and now it’s turning into something other than her intention, I think. She is such a brilliant artist I believe all this is anticipated even planned. ‘A Subtlety’ is having a life of its own, thanks to the viewer’s experiences and the reactions we have towards them.
What those reactions do, is open the door to our feelings on the subject of race, on where we fit-in based on our skin color… Race: that little spin-off of slavery that categorizes people to an inferior cast of humanity for the purpose of exploitation …Our God forbid it doesn’t matter.
More so there are lots of symbolism in ‘A Subtlety’— Acceptance, was I not liked because I was black… Too dark…look like a mammy, not beautiful. Is beauty something that was thought to me?
Maybe I do look like that sculpture but was never admired for those aesthetic symbols of beauty. And now they have to confront that beauty on a massive scale. You are a force to look up and admire.
Also, was this beauty only adequate for sex in out-of-the-way buildings? This Sphinx’s sweet pussy is exposed. Did the artist have options on how to display the Sphinx punani? Could a lion’s tail help? Did she have to arch so high? ‘A Subtlety’ for me becomes a piece about sex masquerading as racism— and sex is always about who controls whom. Right down to her “fuck you” hand “fig gesture.”
Projecting sexual feelings unto racism isn’t that uncommon, especially if you grew up in America’s sex race culture. We have standards of beauty for everything. The closer your features are to the economically dominant popular culture —white— the more you’re likely to be accepted. We’re always competing, and reaffirming standards of beauty with guilt and shame-based on an artificial category we want to believe, race.
‘A Subtlety’ the Political
Describing her sculpture as an homage to victims, I think, is an artifice for social control; debating it will not change the past. It is similar to Reverends Sharpton and Jackson’s use of the word racism as a political tool for their “slave morality,” resentment, and guilt. It serves them to justify this earth as a realm of misery and destruction. However, Kara Walker is not a politician looking for your vote to govern over you, and she is like all artists looking for acceptance. Kara is doing what’s expected, from all Artists, to bear society’s noble goal. To suffer on their behalf, to assuage the collective guilt; by pointing out the injustice, the orgy of suffering ‘the white sphinxes in the room’, again. Like all unresolved issues, it will mutate into another unpleasant bigger and more elaborate devious, rancorous feelings like altruism and self- denial; It will grow infecting cumulating, progressing taking over. In a culture where we abdicate individual responsibility, it’s addictive and will make you feel justified and moral.
