A “not so subtle” controversy

If you got a chance to see the recent Kara Walker exhibit in an abandoned Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, you may have found yourself on one side or the other of a heated debate about art and racism.Walker’s installation, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, a 75.5 feet long, 35.5 feet tall and 26 feet wide sculpture of a mammy/sphinx made out of white sugar and molasses was anything but subtle. Walker says the work was “an homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World.” (1)Purposefully sweet and charming, the exhibit was designed to draw you in and then make you think about the horror of the Carribbean slave trade that fueled the Western market for sugar. Walker says it was blood sugar and the process was very dangerous with many slaves losing arms, legs, and their lives.After the exhibit opened in May critics claimed is was a racist piece of art. Some black visitors were appalled to observe some white visitors laughing and joking as they posed in front of the sculpture. SUNY Westbury Professor Nicholas Powers wrote an essay entitled, “Why I Yelled at the Kara Walker Exhibit,” where he speaks about his outburst at the exhibit and anger at Walker. Powers questions her responsibility as an artist.Powers visited the exhibit three times and by the third visit he was happy to see a team present handing out stickers reading “We Are Here.” Their presence was to remind white visitors about the seriousness of the exhibit and that descendants of slaves were in the room they should curb their disrespectful acts. Charing Bell offers an opposing point of view in her article entitled, “Why the Behavior of White People Shouldn’t be Policed at the Kara Walker ‘Sugar Baby’ Exhibit.” Bell asserts that art—no matter how painful—should not be directed.In an interview with Complex Art & Design, Walker talks in depth about the research that she did and the many complexities involved in the work. Intertwined in this “not so subtle” exhibit, are many subtleties that deal with themes of race, power, and sexuality.For me, Walker’s work calls to mind graphic designer James Victore’s quote, “Graphic design is a big *&#! club with spikes in it and I want to wield it.” Substitute “art” for “graphic design” and A Subtlety packs the same kind of punch, only it’s sugar-coated.What do you think, was the exhibit subtle, racist, or brilliant?Notes:(1) http://creativetime.org/projects/karawalker/Sources:http://creativetime.org/projects/karawalker/http://www.npr.org/2014/05/16/313017716/artist-kara-walker-draws-us-into-bitter-history-with-something-sweethttp://www.indypendent.org/2014/06/30/why-i-yelled-kara-walker-exhibithttp://charlesrubinoff.com/2008/06/favorite-quote-about-graphic-design/http://madamenoire.com/444739/white-people-policed-kara-walker-exhibit/http://www.complex.com/art-design/2014/05/kara-walker-interviewhttp://colorlines.com/archives/2014/06/kara_walkers_sugar_sphinx_evokes_call_from_black_women_we_are_here.html