Flatness and Depth

I found David Hammons' and Kara Walker's art work to be very interesting. They both showed depth on a flat surfuce. David did this with showing light and dark areas within his face that was oiled and pressed on paper where then materail was put to form the highlights. Kara's work was made of black cut outs on construction paper that was then placed on an all white back ground. This showed depth because the white background makes the black cut outs pop off of the wall. I also found their artwork interesting because of the stories behind them.
David's body print titled Spade (1974) "consists of an imprint of the artist's lips and nose beneath two perfectly circular rings which read as eyes" (kocur and Leung p. 301). This portrays a spade because if you cut the head in half, the two sides of the face would make up the round part on each side and the neck would make up the stem ( k and L p. 301). The paragraph later reads that "Hammons makes explicit the price we pay-in unequal measure according to our race, gender and sexuality-in having to exist as images for others, and in having to adjust to the images others have of us" (Kocur and Leung p. 301). Kara Walker, I think, also identifies with this because she can not portray her art in the manner she wants to because it affends people in the black community. They feel that her cut outs with their over exaggerated lips and hair only makes the image of the black person worse. Thom Shaw even went on to say that the works were "obviously targeted at whites" (Kocur and Leung p. 303). I wonder why they think that white people would only buy this piece of art? I also wonder why artist's can not portray art the way they want to without being kindof harrassed by it.

Kocur, Zoya, and Simon Leung. Theory in Contemporary art since 1985. 1st ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005. 300-305. Print.