Blog Post #3 Post Colonial Art_Imani Burke


                                                                                                    

Blog Post #3 Post Colonial Art:Ethnicity

Imani Burke

 Sexuality and Race 

Post colonial Art introduces many different categories artist have been using to theories their art for centuries now. Post colonial art refers to work responding to the aftermath of colonial rule. "Postcolonial theory, which underpins postcolonial art, does not simply relate to the time after which a nation gains independence from its colonial ruler. It analyses and responds to the cultural legacies of colonialism and the human consequences of controlling a country in order to exploit the native people and their land. In doing this it also addresses how the society and culture of non-European peoples were seen from the perspective of Western cultural knowledge; how this was used to subjugate people into a colony of the European Mother Country; and the resulting identities of ‘coloniser" Tate Modern

The Fons Americanus, Kara Walker, 2021

Kara Elizabeth Walker is a contemporary mixed media painter, film maker, instillation artist, and professor who explores race, gender, identity, sexuality, and violence. In Fons Americanus Walker uses a textbook historical motifs that are identifying the roles Europe, Africa, and America and broadcasting  the African Slave Route. This piece also mimics the Victoria Memorial in London, England. "The memorial was designed in 1901 and unveiled in 1911 to honour the achievements of Queen.Victoria who was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901), as well as the Empress of India. Rather than a celebration of the British Empire, Walker’s fountain inverts the usual function of a memorial and questions narratives of power."

Victoria Memorial, London, 1911

In The Fons Americanus, Walker explains the work to be a study or continuation of how we perceive the narrative of monuments today. "Walker’s choice to create Fons Americanus in the form of a public fountain is significant in the wake of recent student demonstrations to take down monuments that celebrate colonial histories in both the US and UK. Fons Americanus turns the celebration and honouring of monuments inside out. The monument asks uncomfortable questions by exploring a history of violence against Black people of Africa and its diaspora that is often  unacknowledged." Another sculpture held in the Turbine Hall is Shell Grotto. This work dives deeper into the specificity of the African Slave Route. It talks about Bunce Island in Sierra Leone.


Shell Grotto, Americanus, Kara Walker, 2019

"Walker’s Shell Grotto connects to the ruins of a colonial fortress on Bunce Island in Sierra Leone. Bunce Island was one of many commercial forts where European slave traders and African merchants traded and captured men, women and children ready for them to be sold on the plantations of the New World or America. Walker’s weeping boy and well question how these traumatic histories are now celebrated. The weeping boy bounces back from the depths of waters to interrogate what we choose to remember and what we forget. How can we see the monuments in our public spaces in a new light?"




Bibliography 

Tate. “Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2674/kara-walkers-fons-americanus. Accessed 26 Nov. 2023.

“Kara Walker.” Tate, shop.tate.org.uk/kara-walker-theme-for-the-fons-americanus-2021/ed1054.html. Accessed 26 Nov. 2023.

Kara Walker, www.karawalkerstudio.com/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2023.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century - Violet Larimer

Image
 Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century Summary: The Bauhaus school, was an art and design school established in Weimar Germany in the early 20th century that, according to the thesis of the documentary, defined and codified the aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings of art and art academia of the 20th century and into the contemporary world. The Bauhaus School was situated as an Avant Garde model to the established pedagogical and aesthetic ideas of the previously established art academy. Instead of learning a cannon and participating in rote tasks; students would learn the building blocks of art and design as a "grammar to visual language." Paired with the workshop structure of teaching, the school was an obvious break from tradition. On a more philosophical and ideological level, the students and teachers had broken down conventional power relations, with students pursuing personal projects within the school. However, despite the radical break in hierarchical structure, ...
Read more

Ryn Forquer Blogpost #4 - AI and Nightshade

Image
     Ben Zhao, a professor at The University of Chicago, has created a program called Nightshade, designed to “poison” AI image generators to stop infringement upon artists’ copyrighted work. Nightshade works by shifting pixels in artwork, confusing the technology on the work’s subject– thus making it possible for an AI generator to transform what is supposed to be an image of a dog into a picture of a cat and so on. The hope behind the creation of this tool is that enough people will use Nightshade that AI generator databases will become unable to produce accurate outputs. Creators of Nightshade include Ben Zhao, Shawn Shan, Wenxin Ding, Josephine Passananti, and Haitao Zheng– at the University of Chicago. The creation of Nightshade comes in response to repeated claims from artists that AI generators, such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and Midjourney, use copyrighted works in the database they draw from. So far, very few laws have addressed this issue– hence the creation ...
Read more

Blog Post #1- The Lonely Palette ep.64

Image
  I listened to an episode of the podcast, The Lonely Palette. I chose the episode about artist Barbara Kruger because I have a strong interest in feminism/activism in art. The episode gave a brief summary of her life and the impacts of her work, specifically her 1989 piece, “Your Body is a Battleground.” Kruger attributed her art style to her background in graphic design. In this piece, she mirrors the face of a woman from a 1950s magazine, half beautiful, half frightening. In bold, highlighted red text the phrase “Your body is a battleground.” Kruger made this work for a pro-choice rally march on Washington, and it blew up as a symbol for protesters across the country. This piece is so simple and yet packs a punch to the viewer. So, what makes this work so impactful? She uses specific and curated language to deliver her message to the viewer. Kruger uses language to her advantage, commenting “I think I developed language skills to deal with the threat. It’s the girl thing to do –...
Read more