ART // SCULPTURE // A SUBLETY (KARA WALKER)
"The Marvelous Sugar Baby an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant."
Inside the former Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Kara Walker exhibits her sculpture made of sugar. The massive sphinx meets Hottentot Venus is symbolic on all kinds of levels. The sphinx, both human and animal, questioning humanity, and is symbolic of the great Egypt that has a history of slavery. In this sculpture the sphynx is made of sugar, and thus reminds us of another slave history: the sugar plantations of the Americas. However, the sugar is also white, sweet, maybe even innocent? Then again, its sphynx form is also an African woman, who is in popular culture highly praised for her great curves but was once conceived of as monstrous exactly because of these curves. Put together, however, in a rather peaceful structure, which is lighting up the factory, and is not trying to place blame or cause a violent discussion. The sculpture is not bluntly provoking, but highly touching. Walker said her work is about "trying to get a grasp on history", and this is exactly what she did. She reminds us of our past and shows all kinds of aspects of it, it is not only literally but also symbolically very multidimensional.