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Kara Walker
No mere words can Adequately reflect the Remorse this Negress feels at having been Cast into such a lowly state by her former Masters and so it is with a Humble heart that she brings about their physical Ruin and earthly Demise, 1999

Artwork Info

Artwork title
No mere words can Adequately reflect the Remorse this Negress feels at having been Cast into such a lowly state by her former Masters and so it is with a Humble heart that she brings about their physical Ruin and earthly Demise
Artist name
Kara Walker
Date created
1999
Classification
installation
Medium
cut paper and adhesive
Dimensions
132 in. × 780 in. (335.28 cm × 1981.2 cm)
Date acquired
2000
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Purchase through a gift of Shawn and Brook Byers
Copyright
© Kara Walker
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2000.306.1-2
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Artist Kara Walker describes the genesis of her controversial piece No Mere Words Can Adequately Reflect The Remorse This Negress Feels At Having Been Cast Into Such A Lowly State By Her Former Masters And So It Is With A Humble Heart That She Brings About Their Physical Ruin And Earthly Demise (1999).

Audio Stories

Walker on silhouettes and racial stereotypes

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transcripts

KARA WALKER: 

I wanted to make a work that was incredibly sad. 

 

NARRATOR:  

Artist Kara Walker. 

 

WALKER:  

That was about something that couldnt be stated or couldnt be seen. Um, so it was kind of dark. Dark walls, dark material. And then to have this kind of radiating sort of pulses of—of white, in the form of the—the swans with the black heads on them. Theres something thats very present, thats recognized as beautiful; and then theres something thats sort of throbbing there at the neck that its harder to see. And then sort of surrounding those forms would be this kind of battle going on for—for claiming them.  

On the one side, theres a little cagey reference to a Negress of some sort. And on the other side, there are some instances of some slightly angrier older people, who may or may not be blind, and a woman removing her eyes. One side of the piece represents blindness or the forces of tradition; and the other side, you have these kind of revolutionaries who may or may not be doing a good job of it. 

I guess all of the pieces are sort of disparate narratives or scenes or interactions that maybe are drawn on, you know, a very sort of base, you know, nineteenth-century stereotypes of black characters, pickaninnies or whatever. But theyve all been, you know, reduced to this—this one thing, this black paper.  

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