{"id":5484,"date":"2011-04-22T07:21:09","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T12:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=5484"},"modified":"2011-04-28T07:14:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T12:14:55","slug":"kara-walker-sings-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2011\/04\/22\/kara-walker-sings-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"~KARA WALKER sings the blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

or: angry young woman Black & White. and blues. finds her inner heart & stills down that vicious hatred.
\na long time acomin’ . . . <\/p>\n

KARA WALKER – ‘Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale’
\nAPRIL 21 – June 4, 2011
\nLEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY – 210 CHRYSTIE ST – at HOUSTON.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER, Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale, (video still detail), 2011.
\nsingle channel video. dimensions variable. edition of 3.
\nIMAGE COURTESY\/ILEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER, Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale, (video still detail), 2011.
\nIMAGE COURTESY\/LEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER, Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale, (video still detail), 2011
\nIMAGE COURTESY\/LEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER, at the show’s opening, Thurs April 21, 2011
\nPHOTO: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nusually when you walk into a KARA WALKER show – it is all cut paper on paper collage. or deep powerful drawing. very strident, very serious. very soulful and sorrowful and mean and angry. cutting. brutally witty. with a dry, deep down in-your-face America roaring back at ya, with over-the-top black face satire. explicit, raunchy. sharp elbow jabs – in the ribs of the county’s consciousness. a visceral one-two punch at America’s meanest streak.
\nno words necessary . . . <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthis show – was a whole other sensory experience – a revelation. as different as a sheet of black construction paper is from the digital dance of video projection . . . from dry to radiant. from static to fluid and flittering. <\/p>\n

an all-film, all moving-image, paper puppet show. the thin black paper cut-out profiles of the past – animated by human hands using sticks & strings – riffs off of Indonesian shadow puppet theater. with animated backgrounds as liquid as moving – water . . . and as dramatic as full-blown sunsets . . . absolutely enchanting. unspeakable gorgeous. profoundly expressive. swift. violent. but not as hateful as that simple piece of cutting-edge cut paper can be in Ms. Walker’s skillful hands. is illuminating the word. more illuminating than accusing ?
\nthe light of digital projection, softly, sensually exploding – like a small shower of fireworks.
\na patchwork quilt in motion. a spin of images.
\nhow to express it . . . a hard message – that got lifted by the song of film ? <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthe narrative still told how fucked-over the blacks were . . . but somehow the tragedy of the tale became more hauntingly like an old melody of sorrow – rather than a kick to the stomach. when you aren’t looking. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nyou still thought about things. don’t get me wrong.but you marveled too, you moved to the sweep of the drama, unfolding before you. no words. . you know: the magic – of storytelling. one of our oldest, living traditions – for a reason: can be spellbinding. and definite a show I want to wander into again, and again. and just let it wash right over me. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nupstairs, in a small screening room, towards the front of the gallery as it faces the street – don’t miss it !!!
\nis a different kind of film experience . . . a brief video loop of Ms. Walker – unmasked !!
\nhow strange and wonderous to be allowed to see this usually very up-tight, formal and academic presence revealing her inner wild child – half undressed and stripped down in more ways than one. , singing the blues . . she radiates joy and enchantment, almost like a small child on running with delight with a kite on a cliff. no hatred here. no mean streak name calling. no scores to settle. in-your-face self-portrait – finding the solace of soul – in the blues. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER . . . . with her on the right: ELLIE BRONSON.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKARA WALKER . . . as cute, and as smart as a (black) pearl button – think she finally really found herself . . .
\nher inner radiant child. grabbed that inner song, let down her hair. caught that that deep-set vibe that could carry her past the aggregate hurt and passed-down resentment. the scars of decades of ill-mistreatment.
\nin a nutshell: the story of the American blacks – thru the blues. <\/p>\n

and so all the more lucky we are – that she shared that little gem of a self portrait video clip with us, and pretty amazing too that she did – because she tends to be a very guarded person in public.<\/p>\n

we<\/em> might go thru the looking glass, narratively speaking, to find ourselves – but the blacks went thru blues. and think about it: does America not rock, now or what ? this country is just one big walking sound track. it’s one of the best things about this country . . . it’s music culture.
\nmusic: from the fast fiddles of the Appalachians to the wide open guitar wails of the delta. the great American melting pot jump-start – to a better place.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

or: angry young woman Black & White. and blues. finds her inner heart & stills down that vicious hatred. a long time acomin’ . . . KARA WALKER – ‘Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale’ APRIL 21 – June 4, 2011 LEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY – 210 CHRYSTIE ST – at HOUSTON. KARA WALKER, Fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5484"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5507,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions\/5507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}