Kara Walker and black American identity at Camden Arts Centre

Kara Walker is a black American artist who uses familiar nineteenth-century art to subvert the traditional American image of black identity. She uses the silhouette, a highly decorous art form in which the outline of an image is cut from black paper, to comment on the physical and sexual brutality of nineteenth-century slave life. The twist is that the images are in the cartoon-like style of much traditional American depiction of black characters, adding to the subversion, as the apparently purely decorative motifs actually show often horrific events but in a style which is almost "cute". In my view, Walker's work ranks among the most effective use of satire in art ever produced.

Auntie Walker's Wall Sampler for Civilians

Auntie Walker's Wall Sampler for Civilians

Auntie Walker's Wall Sampler for Savages

The subversion extends to the captions at her exhibitions, which mimic the advertisements for slave sales.



In this show, Walker also shows large graphite sketches, Dust jackets for the Niggerati, allegedly preparatory works for book illustrations, again showing scenes of cruelty and degradation, but this time in the style of the instructional book. (They are partly a dig at certain black intellectuals, some of whom have criticised her work.)

It is interesting to speculate why this smallish show is at the relatively obscure (but highly worthy) Camden Arts Centre, when a recent show by Ellen Gallagher, whose art also refers to black identity, got a large retrospective at Tate Modern. I found Gallagher's show left me cold, probably because I was unable to decode the references (such as altered 1950s advertisements for products aimed at black Americans) and on the whole I did not find the works aesthetically pleasing (maybe I wasn't meant to). Perhaps Walker's work is considered too one-note, but she has a big enough subject to avoid repetition and she makes her points with a bite and wit I did not find in Gallagher.

Anyway, plaudits to Camden Arts Centre for putting on this show. This venue was originally a library but eventually became an arts centre run by a Trust, and is an exemplar of what can be done, offering not only high quality exhibitions but art and craft classes, a book shop and a cafe, all of which seem to be well used (all right, it's in arty Camden, but I think it would find an audience in most areas with the right support).

Camden Arts Centre