WEBVTT

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[Kara Walker: Starting Out]

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[Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY]

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Okay, I think...

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I'll probably need the ladder.

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Can you move it over a little?

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And, um...

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Actually...

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I have to maybe credit my 24-year-old self

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for making a couple of good moves.

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[The Drawing Center, New York, NY]

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When I started showing work,

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I was Providence, Rhode Island--

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I was a student.

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I was 24,

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and had a big breakout piece at

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The Drawing Center in New York City.

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And it's delicate because the only two things

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that are holding them together

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are at the fingertips.

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This is Huck Finn in a dress,

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and his foot is going to land about here.

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People were just interested and curious.

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Galleries were calling

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and wanted to know more,

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and artists, they wanted to warn me against

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having a big success at a young age.

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I kind of felt like,

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"Well, I don't know myself yet,"

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"and they don't know me either,"

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"but if I stay in Providence,"

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"and take these opportunities as they come,"

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"that's good."

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I knew I wasn't ready to live in New York.

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But, I knew that change is kind of inevitable,

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and I did want to come to the city when I
felt ready.

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I've been teaching for, like, twelve years
or something

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at Columbia University.

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I started when I was also a veritable baby

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and about the same age as many of the graduate
students,

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and that was extremely awkward.

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When I came to the city,

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I felt like my newly forming ego and sense
of self

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was just, like, torn to shreds.

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I don't think I wanted to have the role

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that I was hired for,

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which was "a successful artist who was successful
at a young age,"

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"telling people how to get what I got."

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But, I think I just accepted it this year,

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that I must know something--it's been twenty
years.

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I don't know what that something is,

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but if I just keep talking,

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then that something, you know, might slip
out.

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[Frieze Art Fair, New York, NY]

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There's no diploma in the world that,

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you know, declares you as an artist--

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it's not like becoming a doctor, or something.

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Like, you can declare yourself an artist

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and then figure out how to be an artist.

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It's a different art world than the one that
I stepped into.

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It does seem to be bigger.

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There's more distractions, in a way,

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from the process of making one's own work.

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The pressure to, kind of, conform to a particular

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grad school pedigree is problematic.

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And I think a lot of people feel that way.

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It's, like, a reality that artists are selling
work

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in order to pay back massive debt from these
M.F.A. programs.

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But, I did tell my students, not too long
ago,

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that they have to--and will--

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change the art world

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from the moment they step into it.

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Like, if it means prioritizing, you know,

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critical discourse over objects,

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or products, or something like that.

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Then, if that's what you want,

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then you have to, kind of, make it happen.

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And if it's too expensive to make it happen
right here,

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then you have to make it happen in the place
where you can,

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and don't think of that as any kind of demotion.

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If you can look at the negatives as a student

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and see what needs to be changed,

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then you have to do that.