Perverse Fascination: Medium, Identity, and Performativity in the Art of Kara Walker

dc.contributor.advisorSchulz, Andrewen_US
dc.contributor.authorDiTillio, Jessicaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-07-11T19:58:55Z
dc.date.available2013-07-11T19:58:55Z
dc.date.issued2013-07-11
dc.description.abstractKara Walker is one of the most successful and widely known contemporary African-American artists today--remarkable for her radical engagement with issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Walker is best known for her provocative installations, composed of cut-paper silhouettes depicting fantastic and grotesque scenes of the antebellum South. This thesis examines Walker's work in silhouettes, text, and video in order to establish the unifying logic that unites her media. Walker's use of racist stereotypes has incited vehement criticism, and the debate over the political meaning of her work has been worked and reworked in the voluminous literature on her artistic practice. This thesis focuses on how Walker's defense and explanation of her own work functions as a performative and political component of the art itself. Walker's construction and performance of an artistic identity is an integral and intentional part of her overall practice and a key component to the interpretation of her work.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/12970
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.en_US
dc.subjectContemporary Arten_US
dc.subjectKara Walkeren_US
dc.subjectMediumen_US
dc.subjectPerformativityen_US
dc.subjectPost-Blacken_US
dc.subjectSilhouetteen_US
dc.titlePerverse Fascination: Medium, Identity, and Performativity in the Art of Kara Walkeren_US
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of the History of Art and Architectureen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregonen_US
thesis.degree.levelmastersen_US
thesis.degree.nameM.A.en_US

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