I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle
1995-96
"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