2-teilige Zeichnung mit Graphit und Wasserfarbe auf Papier, auf der in der Mitte nur mit Schuhen bekleidete Frau mit erschrecktem Gesicht von links nach rechts rennt. Um sie herum sind weitere Figuren zu erkennen.

Kara Walker

Yesterdayness in America Today

Year2020
Material2 parts; graphite and watercolor on paper
Dimensions365.8 x 221.9 cm
Year of acquisition2022
Inventory numberUAB 1308
On viewGround floor
Copyright© Kara Walker

More about the artwork

With large steps and a pain-distorted face, a Black woman dressed only in shoes strides forward. Full of despair, ruffling her hair, she throws her head back. Behind her, an equally naked Black man kneels with his hands clasped behind his head, as if he were about to be arrested. From the background, a ghostly figure points a sugarcane at her; to the right, a rock musician bawls, merging Elvis Presley with Donald Trump. Half vision, half nightmare, Kara Walker’s monumental drawing “Yesterdayness in America Today” (2020) reflects on how the history of enslavement, as well as present-day discrimination and violence, define the living conditions of Black people in the United States. The present, Walker argues, can only be understood by reflecting on the history of power relations: “My work has always been a time machine catapulting me backward across decades and centuries to arrive at some understanding of my ‘place’ in the contemporary moment.”