I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle

1995-96

American, born 1969

"I want people to respond and to be aware that if a goody-two-shoe like me can have all of this going on in her head, then nobody's safe," is one way the artist challenges viewers.

People have responded with both indignation and appreciation for Kara Walker's use of stereotypes. At first, her format appears to be a revival of an old-fashioned art form-that of silhouettes-however her silhouettes focus on undercurrents in the mythologies of the antebellum South that none have dared to visualize before: rape, incest and cannibalism. In this scene, a woman is holding what looks like a dripping rope before a monkey, a recurring type of impish creature in Walker's work.

Lithograph

39 1/2 x 35 in. (100.3 x 88.9 cm)

Print Acquisition Fund and gift of P. Raaze Garrison

99.61

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Anne Gerber Biennial: 2000 1/2: going forward looking back", May 8, 2000 - August 4, 2000

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Africa in America", December 18, 2004 - January 1, 2006

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Black Art II", November 21, 2008 - March 15, 2009

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