AiKO at work.
Spotted
Kara Walker (and others) at the Whitney
I went to the Whitney this past Saturday to view the Kara Walker exhibit, and also ended up viewing other exhibits as well. But I’ll only chat about hers right now. The show is titled “Kara Walker, My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love.”
Wasn’t sure what to expect, until my friend Ivan warned me before hand. Controversial. Thats the word I would use to describe Kara’s work. The content is a bit disturbing to say the least. And it will stir up your emotions. Supposedly she is not liked by many African Americans, even though she is herself black. And I can see why. She touches on social and political views on racism and slavery with blatant raw imagery and crass humor. She uses all mediums to convey her message; from cut out silhouettes to paper on canvas, drawings, ink, video, projections and collage. Her work also ranges from words on paper, to narrative video using her silhouettes. Here’s a quote from “Conversations with Contemporary Artists: Kara Walker“, a MoMA Online Project.
“I knew that if I was going to make work that had to deal with race issues, they were going to be full of contradictions. Because I always felt that it’s really a love affair that we’ve got going in this country, a love affair with the idea of it, with the notion of major conflict that needs to be overcome and maybe a fear of what happens when that thing is overcome. And, of course, the issues also translate into [the] very personal: Who am I beyond this skin I’m in?”
In my opinion, when something triggers raw emotions and thought, I believe its true art. This exhibit is definitely not suitable for everyone, but a must see.
note: click on the image above to view more images from my museum trip.
banksy
I had a chance to go to the ‘banksy nyc’ exhibit at the Vanina Holasek Gallery in new york city. I had no idea he had nothing to do with the show.. but once I walked in, I noticed it was ‘set-up’ kinda cheesy…90% of the work were prints and maybe one or two street pieces (a locker door and sign). There were fake rats all over the place, splattered paint on the walls and caution-tape all over. The pieces were hung crooked and some had ripped bubble wrap around them….the gallery was selling posters, t-shirts and christmas cards (25$)!.
I much rather see banksy, or any graffiti artists, on the street. I know its much harder in the U.S., but I did have the opportunity to see some of his rats in LA a few years back. Having a show where the artist has nothing to do with it, kinda threw me off, specially when they tried so hard to make it look legit. it was weird. I did enjoy seeing things with my own eyes, as I would with anything, but would have rather been at his LA gallery show or stumbled upon it on a walk.
click image above to view my flickr set of the exhibit.