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Kara Walker: Starting Out | ART21 "Exclusive"

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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.
Title:
Kara Walker: Starting Out | ART21 "Exclusive"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
04:32

English subtitles

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