"Fibbergibbet and Mumbo Jumbo: Kara E. Walker in Two Acts"

by Lori Hill

art

The youngest-ever recipient of a MacArthur grant at age 27, Kara Walker first sent art folks into a tizzy in 1994, when she emerged from seemingly nowhere, furiously cutting and shaping paper into politically incorrect, silhouetted scenes of an antebellum South many thought deservedly forgotten. Young children chasing chickens, a girl's head attached to a watermelon, exaggeratedly big-lipped, nappy-haired women and men reduced to black shapes on a white background. Despite an uproar led by black artists like Betye Saar, Walker daringly persisted in her work and became famous, earning accolades and shows all over the country.

Walker skillfully takes a respectable, Colonial-era artistic technique -- the simple, refined silhouette -- and uses it to skewer the stereotypes of the time (always aware of the way each is an oversimplification of the truth). For exhibits like "The Emancipation Approximation" and "Slavery Slavery!" her source material was 19th-century slave narratives, miniatures, portraits -- anything that gave her a sense of real and imagined African-Americans. In a sociopolitical sense, Walker's work is about reclaiming the offensive imagery and language that so marginalized her forebears. But in an artistic sense, it's also about the history of decoration and breaking new ground.

Now 35, Walker is the Fabric Workshop's artist in residence, and the result of her four-year stay is "Fibbergibbet and Mumbo Jumbo: Kara E. Walker in Two Acts," an installation work still receiving final touches at press time. A large stage set will contain a coffee-and-pigment-stained muslin backdrop, a bright full moon, wooden silhouettes of willow trees and an aphorism-laden signpost. New to Walker's repertoire is video; "Fibbergibbet" includes a video clip of the artist dancing the Charleston behind the scrim. Full of shadows and light, this new work is sure to reference the stereotypes, but from the sounds of it, there's a maturity of focus and maybe a little more adventurousness in the making. Walker herself will make an appearance at the sure-to-be-packed opening reception. Like Spike Lee's Bamboozled, Walker's cutouts re-appropriate old-time stereotypes about African-Americans, thereby reinterpreting the imagery for contemporary audiences to consider. And like that movie, Walker's work challenges the comfort level of viewers to the point that they don't know whether to be repelled or compelled by the image. Walker would probably want both.

"Fibbergibbet and Mumbo Jumbo: Kara E. Walker in Two Acts," opening reception Fri., March 26, 5:30-7:30 p.m., exhibit through May 29, Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1315 Cherry St., fifth floor, 215-568-1111.