BATTLE HYMN

A stalwart in her own right, a messiah of the unheard, and an unapologetic soul; Kara Walker pushes her artwork into the present while reflecting the pains inflicted in the past.

- CHITMAN KANWAR AHUJA

Born in 1969 in Stockton, California, Kara plunged into notoriety in the 1990s, soon after finishing her education at Rhode Island School of Design. Viewed as a whipsmart upstart, she made controversial cut-paper silhouettes of black figures that arguably played into racist caricatures – and won herself the MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Genius’ award in 1997.

Her craft, almost always monochrome, extends to etching, sketching and even sugarwork. She is now perhaps best known for ‘A Subtlety’, the completely unsubtle, giant, curvaceous sugarwork she constructed in 2014, at a disused sugar factory in Brooklyn, which drew exceptional guests like Beyoncé and Jay Z. The most consistent aspect of her work is its ability to latch on to you and unsettle you. The pouted lips of a black woman may be slightly engorged, the head of a baby rolling its eyes back while seemingly slipping out of a vagina, a slave that appears to be poised for getting his arm chopped off. They’re the unwanted, distressing thoughts that burrow into your head at night-time.