Article
"Kara Walker's Mourning Play"
Oxford Art Journal
(2018)
Abstract
What might it mean for a work of art to satisfy mourning in the viewer? What loss is mourned? How is the feeling provoked and acknowledged? What form does the artwork take to satisfy mourning? This article puts these questions among others in dialogue with A Subtlety by Kara Walker, a site-specific public installation commissioned by Creative Time that was constructed, exhibited, and destroyed in Brooklyn in 2014. Where much of the literature on Walker’s art dwells in the ethical concerns that her provocative engagement with stereotype and the history of American slavery invites, this article takes a different approach. By using Walter Benjamin’s concept of the Baroque mourning play, or Trauerspiel, as a lens through which to consider A Subtlety, the affective and allegorical dimensions of the great work are foregrounded. Close readings of contemporary reviews of A Subtlety are offered along with analysis of related artworks in Walker’s oeuvre and consideration of the broader discourse of mourning, including texts by Claudia Rankine, Sigmund Freud, Saidiya V. Hartman, and Judith Butler. Ultimately, this article aims to surface the question: What might an artwork that successfully satisfies mourning be said to yield?
Keywords
- kara walker,
- mourning,
- walter benjamin,
- claudia rankine
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2018
DOI
10.1093/oxartj/kcx040
Citation Information
Amy K Hamlin. ""Kara Walker's Mourning Play"" Oxford Art Journal Vol. 41 Iss. 1 (2018) p. 101 - 118 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/akhamlin/5/