May 26, 2014

Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety”—an installation at The Domino Sugar factory in Brooklyn –is one of the most beautiful and disturbing works I have ever seen. And then, isn’t that just like Kara Walker? One of the few beautiful and disturbing works I have seen previously was a mural in silhouette that she created for the Atrium at the Museum of Modern Art a couple of years ago. There is a way that some really great artists have of stepping up to a challenge and taking their art to some new and wonderful place. Kara Walker seems to me to be one of those artists. This piece goes to a new and wonderful place.

The principle figure in this installation is a giant “Mammy”, in a sphinx-like position, naked but for a bandana wrapped around her hair. Her breasts are exposed, her ass is exposed, her genitalia is exposed. Her hands are grasping the ground, fingers clenched, her feet intertwined, her back is arched, her face looks straight ahead. She is poised for what is going to happen to her.

And she is made entirely of white powdered sugar.

Detail from “A Subtlety”