Kara Walker: African’t

Kara Walker’s ‘African’t’ (showing at The Broad) was shocking. Stark black cutouts demanded my attention as they depicted depraved scenes against a highly contrasting white background flooded with light.

I wanted to see fairytales, the ones I’d come to know as a child, as the lines and shapes of each figure felt oddly familiar. Yet, upon closer examination, storybook images of my youth were replaced with violence, sex, and … shitting?

I was stunned but not enough to look away. Instead, I looked closer and closer still. This installation enveloped me. I sat with it a while, and then, took it with me.