Use of Memory in Art by Kara Walker - Essay Example

Use of Memory in Art by Kara Walker Name：shuying li Date： The concept of memory has a very special place in the field of art. Visual art and specifically paintings are used by artists to communicate vital messages directly and also indirectly through memory. When perceived, paintings evoke certain ideas and memories stored both in the conscious and unconscious mind. Various artists have employed this concept of memory to address specific themes. One of the artists who have excelled in exploiting the concept of memory in their works is Kara Walker. This artist has gained international recognition for her exemplary art in the form of paper cut-out silhouettes and silhouette projections. Her pieces of work have attracted much critique with one side highlighting the alleged obscenity and racialstereotyping in her pieces while others contend that her work serves a great purpose in reinforcing the memories of America’s dark history in form of slavery and racism.1 Through her artwork, she is able to evoke certain memories in the audience both personal and public. This paper explores in brief this concept of memory in her artwork. The concept of memory has interested many scholars in the field of philosophy, neurobiology, art and physiology2. In one such study by Ishai and colleagues, they sought to understand how indeterminate art influences memory. In their study, subjects were subjected to paintings with meaningful content and ones of indeterminate images. They noted that recognition for the meaningful content was faster than that for indeterminate images. They thus concluded that determinate images are more informed by memory and recalling than indeterminate images which the subjects had little or no past experience with.3 This concurs with the schema theories on memory which view memory as a “product of incorporating or assimilating new information into previously developed structures or organizations of knowledge in long-term memory.”4 It is this previous knowledge on racism and slavery that Walker seeks to help her audience recall through her work. One of Walker’s famous pieces is titled “Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart” (1994). This piece of art captures the concept of memory in so many ways. Primarily, the work was in response to the film Gone with the Wind which was based on a novel by the same name authored by Margaret Mitchell. In particular, the film was highly criticized for apparently glorifying slavery. On the other hand, other art critics and commentators on social relations lauded the film and the novel for highlighting the issue of slavery. On the other hand, there were views that the film acknowledges slavery and reminds the world that slavery did take place and many African Americans lost their lives and their dignity. Kara has commented on this issue and even compared slavery to the Holocaust but notes that white America has downplayed slavery in an attempt to conceal the evils of slavery. This piece evokes in the audience memories that assist them to assess what is worth remembering and construct the past to make it more meaningful and intelligible in a way that provides better understanding of the present and the future. In the image as shown below, Walker represented what she felt about the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.5 The image portrays a white couple kissing with a nearby boy holding a dead fowl. She portrays the near perfect image of white people are portrayed by the novel. Figure 1 Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994). As a visual piece of art, the memories are triggered by visual impulses. There are different ways that that artists employ in evoking desired memories including sound, and movement. Memories are thus classified as explicit and implicit. Implicit memory is performance of actions of feeling of emotions without drawing on memory while explicit memory pertains for actions and feelings informed by memories acquired orally or by sight.6In this case, Walker portrays of images from memories acquired from the text by Mitchell. This corresponds to OkakuraKakuzo’s words that “art is a product of past history combined with present conditions. It develops from fusion of past and present.”7 Therefore art relies heavily in memory. Different disciplines definememory as differently but the basic concept is thatmemory is recollection of the past which is critical to forming human identity and separates man from other creatures.8 In her artwork Walker addresses the issue of racism as a historical and yet a modern issue. She draws the strong contrasts in her pieces by largely using white and black silhouettes against to represent the two main opposing races.By doing so, Walker seeks to appeal to the uncanny and unconscious memories of racism and personal emotions by appealing to the repressed emotions and their hidden fears and beliefs.9 Again, the image appeals to the public and collective memory of African-Americans who experienced slavery and racism. Although no one alive lived in era of slavery, it is public knowledge that the blacks experienced torture and deaths at the hands of white masters in the US. The artist thus seeks to appeal to this sense of identity through the memories of the people. The near perfect perception of whites by blacks as she portrays in the image could explain racial disparities in the US, Australia and other multiracial societies. “Negress notes” is another work series by Kara Walker that explores race matters. As the name suggests, the piece presents her world view as a black woman in America. As shown by the image below, one of the images in this series depicts a black girl floating like a hot air balloon and holding a child awkwardly while she has a noose around her neck. What this work is to represent the idea of lynching that historian have claimed was very common during the era of slavery. Slaves were punished by their white masters through flogging and hard labor and in extreme cases were hanged. Again, during the segregation era, white supremacists were accused of killing blacks using extreme methods such as lynching and even skinning them alive. These are the memories that Kara is working so hard to preserve such knowledge and evoke memories that would trigger debate in the right directions. In the image blow it appears that the artist is representing the poor upbringing of black children which might be linked to their behaviour as adult. Sociologists have linked poor childhood to delinquency among other behaviour problems among adults. Figure 2 One of the images from Negress Notes series In the same Negress Notes” another image that seems to address racial relations from a different angle is as depicted below. The image depicts two young girls. One is black and dressed in tattered and is even barefoot. The young white girl is dressed in a nice outfit and appears very smart. This ideally captures economic disparity between the whites and African Americans. While Kara has given much attention of her work to slavery and racial relations which took place several decades ago, economic disparities between the two races are current and the gap continues to widen. Kara seeks to remind Americans and the world about the wealth gap between the whites and blacks and how it affects children and even how they perceive themselves. In much of her works, Walker is interested in empowering blacks and even highlighting social issues affecting this group of people which she largely attributes to slavery and racism. Figure 3 Image 2 from Negress Notes However, how individuals perceive these paintings is different courtesy of individual memories. As a aforementioned, memory relies on previously held knowledge and the current perceptions to create meaning. Based on this, it implies that memory itself is subject to fiction same way as texts or psychological experience of selfhood. The context of the images will also determine the amount of knowledge or information recalled to relate with the current images.10 In this case, the experience with slavery through history and other depictions such as film may vary a lot. In his regard, the attempts by Walker to convey a particular message mainly related to black consciousness and race relations may not be perceived as intended.11 This can be attributed to the much criticism and praise her work has received. It is the knowledge structures that individuals rely on to perceive and understand her work that trigger such divergent views on her work. The discussion thus shows that memory has key role to play in art. While artists such as Walker have made attempts to convey certain messages and evoke certain emotions, the individual memory and the context within which a painting is viewed combine to create meaning. Artists are also driven by their memories and understanding of various issues to create their work. This way, Walker is able to communicate with the audience on various issues either publicly to the audience or uniquely to individual person based on their own personal memories. References Bartlett, J. (1984). Cognition of complex events: visual scenes and music. In Crozier W. R. & Chapman, A.J. (eds.). Cognitive processes in the perception of art. New York: Elsevier. DuBois, S. G. (2004). Seeing the Unspeakable. The Art of Kara Walker. Durham: Duke University Press. Ishai, A., Fairhall, S. & Pepperell, R. (2007). Perception, memory and aesthetics of indeterminate art. Brain Research Bulletin 73, 319-324 Kimball, C. (2008). Traces of memory. New York: ProQuest. Nalbantian, S., Matthews, P. & McClelland, J. (2014). Memory in art: A bit of the memory process. Boston: MIT Press. Negress Notes: http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/kara-walker/negress-notes-1996 Schacter, D. (2001) Memory, Brain, and Belief. New York: Harvard University Press Seraphim, F. (2013). Visual cultures of memory in modern Japan. In Tumblety, J. (ed.). Memory and History: Understanding Memory as Source and Subject.London: Routledge. Read More

In the image as shown below, Walker represented what she felt about the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.5 The image portrays a white couple kissing with a nearby boy holding a dead fowl. She portrays the near perfect image of white people are portrayed by the novel. Figure 1 Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994). As a visual piece of art, the memories are triggered by visual impulses. There are different ways that that artists employ in evoking desired memories including sound, and movement.

Memories are thus classified as explicit and implicit. Implicit memory is performance of actions of feeling of emotions without drawing on memory while explicit memory pertains for actions and feelings informed by memories acquired orally or by sight.6In this case, Walker portrays of images from memories acquired from the text by Mitchell. This corresponds to OkakuraKakuzo’s words that “art is a product of past history combined with present conditions. It develops from fusion of past and present.

”7 Therefore art relies heavily in memory. Different disciplines definememory as differently but the basic concept is thatmemory is recollection of the past which is critical to forming human identity and separates man from other creatures.8 In her artwork Walker addresses the issue of racism as a historical and yet a modern issue. She draws the strong contrasts in her pieces by largely using white and black silhouettes against to represent the two main opposing races.By doing so, Walker seeks to appeal to the uncanny and unconscious memories of racism and personal emotions by appealing to the repressed emotions and their hidden fears and beliefs.

9 Again, the image appeals to the public and collective memory of African-Americans who experienced slavery and racism. Although no one alive lived in era of slavery, it is public knowledge that the blacks experienced torture and deaths at the hands of white masters in the US. The artist thus seeks to appeal to this sense of identity through the memories of the people. The near perfect perception of whites by blacks as she portrays in the image could explain racial disparities in the US, Australia and other multiracial societies.

“Negress notes” is another work series by Kara Walker that explores race matters. As the name suggests, the piece presents her world view as a black woman in America. As shown by the image below, one of the images in this series depicts a black girl floating like a hot air balloon and holding a child awkwardly while she has a noose around her neck. What this work is to represent the idea of lynching that historian have claimed was very common during the era of slavery. Slaves were punished by their white masters through flogging and hard labor and in extreme cases were hanged.

Again, during the segregation era, white supremacists were accused of killing blacks using extreme methods such as lynching and even skinning them alive. These are the memories that Kara is working so hard to preserve such knowledge and evoke memories that would trigger debate in the right directions. In the image blow it appears that the artist is representing the poor upbringing of black children which might be linked to their behaviour as adult. Sociologists have linked poor childhood to delinquency among other behaviour problems among adults.

Figure 2 One of the images from Negress Notes series In the same Negress Notes” another image that seems to address racial relations from a different angle is as depicted below. The image depicts two young girls. One is black and dressed in tattered and is even barefoot. The young white girl is dressed in a nice outfit and appears very smart. This ideally captures economic disparity between the whites and African Americans. While Kara has given much attention of her work to slavery and racial relations which took place several decades ago, economic disparities between the two races are current and the gap continues to widen.

Read More