Kara Walker's Fons Americanus: A Monument about Monuments

Kara Walker's work asks us to struggle with big ideas and helps us make the invisible assumptions in our world visible. This video is me struggling with the difficult objects she creates, Fons Americanus, and I couldn't be more grateful for the lesson.
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Works Cited
Gambari, Olga, and Kara Walker. Kara Walker: a Negress of Noteworthy Talent; Fondazione Merz, 2011.
PEABODY, REBECCA. CONSUMING STORIES: Kara Walker and the Imagining of American Race. UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2021.
Tate. “Kara Walker's Fons Americanus - Look Closer.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2674/kara-walkers-fons-americanus.
Walker, Kara, et al. Kara Walker: Fons Americanus. Tate Publishing, 2019.
#arttheory
#contemporaryart
#tatemodern

[@mountpennart]

I always end my Art History curriculum with Kara Walker- a good reminder that beauty can be dangerous, and that Art always, always needs a closer look. This was a masterful discussion. Thank you as always. You bring so much to the table.

[@AmorSciendi]

Amazing. So happy she's taught in schools

[@AprilMartinChartrandMS]

She is exhibiting July 1, 2024 at SFMOMA. I can't wait to Kara's work.

[@AmorSciendi]

Oh amazing. Can't wait to hear about what she does there. I have a video about the Julie Mehretu murals in the entrance of SFMOMA

[@DwRockett]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="268">4:28</a> such a great point, and one that it is quite important for people to remember when discussing so much related to history

[@lwazihlophe8955]

Thank you for creating this video. It has made me realise how I an African have been conditioned to not value art and it's place in my memory and how that was intentionaly done. Through your video and Karas work I am now slightly open to see and observe more.

[@Icianvers]

Thank you for your effort to deliver clarity.

[@Terzy]

So good

[@DwRockett]

Awesome video, need to look into her work now

[@AmorSciendi]

Real glad you liked it. My longest video yet.

[@aeromodeller1]

Anna - Key West. Anna is the name of the boat. Key West is it's home port.

[@garyrickard6189]

Thanks!

[@gertanckaert3023]

thank you for breaking down the heady intellectual views on art

[@artstrology]

One of the few times a mimetic theme is ok.

[@robertwalker2052]

I'm less enthused about this. Her modeling is clumsy, and her themes, so well-rehearsed here, are heavy-handed and obvious. I think it would be difficult to find someone who disagrees with the thrust of this--least of all, me-- but in execution this is convoluted and wanting in the elemental skills anyone who calls himself a sculptor should be long-since adept at doing. I am referring to the crude execution of facial features, no better than claymation. No work of art is ever MERELY its meaning. This work needs more gestation in the execution department.

[@NickNicholson13]

You don't have to care too much about the quality of the execution when your artistic intent boils down to "White man bad".

[@thomheil]

I go back and forth when I think about the beauty (or lack of beauty) in Walker's sculptures. Her paper silhouettes are so exquisite that her sculpture tends to disappoint me. But I wonder if she's trying to get us to identify with the people who would have built this fountain instead of the Victoria fountain. If the people whose experiences she's depicting created a giant sculpture, would it possibly have looked like this? Also, what is the beauty of the Victoria fountain covering up? Maybe a fountain about colonialism and slavery shouldn't be beautiful at all.

[@MiguelLopez-kc5ww]

excellent shit as always

[@AmorSciendi]

Thanks

[@septology]

"K West" sounds like a Bowie reference to me, but I'm not sure what it would signify in this case

[@septology]

Alternatively, going with Kanye, it could be referencing his notorious "Slavery was a choice"

[@AmorSciendi]

Yeah. In what ways a Bowie reference?

[@septology]

@@AmorSciendi On the album cover for Ziggy Stardust, Bowie is standing below a sign that says "K. West"

[@AmorSciendi]

Ah. Cool. Didn't know that. Thanks

[@ronnyskaar3737]

Really interesting! Guess the work would be banned in Florida and some other dangerous US states.