Word: 19th
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...whose linguistic roots date back more than 800 years to northern Italy and southern Germany, was spoken by 11 million Jews at its peak, particularly in eastern Europe. The "lingua franca" among Jews on five continents, its most extensive literature was produced during its brief flowering from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century...
Pasted to the walls of the Carpenter Center are sheets of black paper, cut into silhouettes that wind around the oddly-shaped space of the lobby. Entering the lobby, one is confronted with the long, cumbersome title, printed in 19th century type on the gray concrete of the front wall. The title's reference to "enlightened audiences" could not be more apt in all its cynicism, class consciousness and cultural criticism than it is here, in the art center of Harvard University...
Though much of the exhibit focuses on the horrors of slavery, Walker also effectively explores issues of black assimilation, black self-hatred and class mobility. For example, a black couple in 19th century formal-wear and bristling with haughtiness attempt to establish a safe-haven through European clothing and custom. Yet, the woman's skirt or stole is lined with ferrets, and a head of one remains alive, as its silhouette, too, is shown in profile, turning around to observe her. The scene establishes a dramatic irony; the viewer is aware that this black couple has failed to escape...
Even on the level of scale, Walker distorts the niceties of hand-held, 19th century bourgeois silhouettes. The near full-scale images in her surreal world aren't genteel keepsakes or familiar racial epithets. Walker's anti-stereotypes wouldn't make good logos on syrup bottles or tidy punch-lines to racist jokes. Rather, the very icons designed to suppress and stigmatize blacks return magnified and grotesque to haunt our collective conscience. Most shocking of all, the pickaninnies have appropriated the garb of paper silhouettes, the charming craft of their mistress' reaction...
...same time, we're trapped by the double bind of voyeurism, appalled at what we witness, yet unable to take our eyes away. Here again Walker allies herself with the writers of 19th century slave narratives who knew all too well that violence and sexual titillation wee useful tools for attracting readers to the horrors of their plight. Walker admits to her "love for the unnecessary flourish," and it is precisely those formal details, whether salacious contours or languorous gaps, which captivate and torment...