So I took a four day cruise to the Bahamas. Only one 60 minute session of smartphone use permitted. Laptop left at home. But I took my new sugar baby brain with me to the Bahamas. Of the 319,000 people, 85% are dissidents of African slaves that were brought to the Caribbean for sugar production. But not directly to the Bahamas. The Bahamas were semi abandoned until British loyalist arrived … [Read more...]
Kara Walker Tangent: Remember Fred Wilson
The sugar baby is not public art. I am stubbornly holding onto the idea that an essential part of the definition of "public art" is the capacity for any person to stumble across the work in accessible public space. Once the art is locked inside a structure, the key element of the "any person" disappears. And more importantly it loses it's power as a threat or collaborator to public … [Read more...]
Round-up of Articles on Kara Walker’s sugar baby
First: Kara Walker's sugar baby is NOT public art. It is big sculpture. To qualify as public art, the work must be accidentally available to any person in real space. The best public art engages a public space that is truly owned and protected by a community of people. Once behind the walls - like a strip club - the vast public allows anything as long as the establishment does not attract … [Read more...]
Kara Walker Tangents: Sexual Sphinx
As I considered Walkers' sugar baby, I wanted to know about sphinx sculpture in general. I was very surprised to learn the 17-18th century feminization of the sphinx with a subtle dose of sexuality in Europe. In the ancient times, the memorable sphinx's are male with a sense of pride and self-importance, not sex. The great sphinx at Giza Egypt fools the memory as a female with its head dress … [Read more...]
We have the best public art of 2014 – Kara Walker
So Kara Walker's "A Subtlety" has been declared the best public artwork of 2014. BUT at the moment it is NOT public art. Buried in the Domino Sugar factory the work does endure the same public examination that Sofia Maldonado's 42nd Street murals suffered with public calls for removal and a serious debate about media images of African-Americans in 2010. Move the Sugar Baby to TIMES … [Read more...]