Banner image by Bradley Leftley, sourced on Unsplash.
Kara Walker is a critically acclaimed contemporary artist renowned for her unflinching explorations of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through diverse mediums, including painting, drawing, film, sculpture, and her iconic silhouette artworks.
Born in California in 1969 and raised in the American South, Walker’s work delves into the legacies of slavery and racism, challenging viewers to confront uncomfortable truths embedded in history. Walker first gained widespread recognition for her large-scale black paper cut-out silhouettes, which evoke the antebellum South and depict haunting, violent, and complex narratives. These silhouette artworks, with their stark contrast of black against white, create a powerful visual language that plays with historical memory and stereotypes, compelling viewers to examine uncomfortable aspects of history.
Through her artworks, Walker’s intention is to expose and interrogate the historical narratives that continue to shape societal perceptions and power dynamics. Her art is often characterized by its unsettling beauty and critical engagement with the past, offering a space for dialogue about trauma, memory, and representation. By confronting institutionalized histories of oppression, Walker’s work invites viewers to question how these narratives are constructed and commemorated.
Fons Americanus (2019)
In 2019, Walker unveiled Fons Americanus as part of the Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in London. This 13-meter-tall fountain draws inspiration from the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace in London but subverts traditional celebratory monuments by confronting the histories of the transatlantic slave trade.
Crafted from cork, metal, and wood coated in jesmonite (a non-toxic acrylic and gypsum composite), the fountain features allegorical figures and scenes that narrate the interconnected histories of Africa, America, and Europe. Water flows from the central figure's breasts and throat, symbolizing the exploitation and suffering endured during colonial times.
“What Walker’s work does so powerfully is that it forces the viewer to reckon with the violence that underpins empire and its commemoration in public spaces across London,” says Mike Cooter, Faculty, MA Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
“Laden with allegory, as was Sir Thomas Brock’s 1911 original, Walker’s work subverts its source and explicitly evokes the brutality of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the present: Tate founder Henry Tate’s wealth, of course, derived from the sugar plantations and trade networks established through this exploited labor.” Walker's reinterpretation serves as a poignant critique of imperialism and a call to reevaluate how history is commemorated in public spaces.
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How was Fons Americanus made?
The creation of Fons Americanus was a collaborative and meticulous process. Walker began by crafting detailed clay maquettes, some as small as four inches, which bore her thumbprints, emphasizing their physical creation. These models were digitally scanned to capture every nuance of Walker's modeling process. The Brighton-based design and fabrication company Millimetre then utilized these scans to develop the full-scale sculptures.
Walker’s commitment to sustainability was evident throughout the production of Fons Americanus. Designers and artists at Millimetre employed an industry-grade robotic arm to mill high-density Portuguese cork, a material chosen for its sustainability and minimal environmental impact, alongside other materials (wood, metal) that could be easily recycled.
"It’s only through encountering Walker’s work in real life that you are able to read its physical qualities: the rough surface that preserves the processes—and hands—involved in its making, mirroring the clay maquettes made by monumental sculptors through history (known as ‘bozzetti’) that retain a direct physicality often lost in the polished stone or marble that was produced from them," says Cooter.
"We also get to experience first-hand how the artist (and the institution) invite us to read the work—in this instance, as a temporary monument, its non-permanence designed into its recyclability. Encounters like this are a key reason why we take students on so many visits in the MA Contemporary Art program in London. We get to use the fantastic museums and galleries the city has to offer as our classroom."
A Subtlety (2014)
Five years before Fons Americanus, Walker created A Subtlety, or Marvelous Sugar Baby, within the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, NY. This massive installation consisted of a sphinx-like figure with the head of a Black woman, coated in white sugar, measuring approximately 75 feet long and 35 feet tall. Surrounding the central figure were fifteen life-size sculptures of young boys made from sugar and resin. Commissioned by Creative Time, A Subtlety addressed the historical exploitation that underpinned sugar production and the slavery that enabled its profitability. The installation’s striking visuals and thematic weight sparked conversations about race, power, representation and the evolution of global capitalism.
Though created five years apart, A Subtlety and Fons Americanus share significant conceptual and thematic connections. Both works confront historical legacies of exploitation and racial injustice while challenging the established narratives often commemorated by monuments. Walker’s production of deliberately temporary monuments (A Subtlety was to be destroyed along with the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refinery, just as Fons Americanus was made with a view to its recycling) reflects both the underlying fragility of social memory, but also suggests ways in which the monuments that surround us in civic space might be reconsidered.
Through the creation of both of these sculptures, Walker reclaims the monument form to critique systemic violence and invites the viewer to reconsider how history is constructed and remembered. The impact of artworks like those of Walker continue to be felt today as sculptures dedicated to figures who profited from the transatlantic slave trade are critically assessed and sometimes even removed.
Significance of Kara Walker’s Sculptural Work
Through these monumental sculptures, Walker continues her ongoing examination of how historical narratives are constructed and whose voices are given prominence. By placing provocative artworks in culturally significant sites, she disrupts conventional understandings of public art and historical memory. Walker’s sculptural work, much like her silhouette installations, compels audiences to confront uncomfortable truths and consider how the legacies of oppression persist in contemporary society.