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82 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 83
Kara Walker
/ United States b.1969 / ‘An unpeopled land in uncharted waters’ series 2010 /
The secret sharerer
2010 / 68.5 x 68.5cm / Etching with aquatint, sugar-lift, spit‑bite
and dry-point on Hahnemuhle Copperplate Bright White 300gsm paper / Acc. 2010.492a–f / Purchased 2010 with a special allocation from the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
Kara Walker
‘An unpeopled land in uncharted waters’ series 2010
Kara Walker is known for using silhouettes to create elaborate
narratives set in the Antebellum South (1781–1860, before
the American Civil War) that deal with the history of slavery.
Walker often sources images from historical textbooks and
illustrated periodicals, transforming them into nightmarish
graphic scenes that reflect on questions and preconceptions of
race, gender and sexuality. The graphic power of ‘An unpeopled
land in uncharted waters’ — modulated with aquatint and subtle
shifts of tonal register — continues Walker’s concern with
historical injustice and oppression, and relates to the experience
of slaves transported across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa.