Book

Kara Walker : Figa / [edited by Karen Marta ; photography, Ari Marcopoulos ; preface by Dakis Joannou ; introduction and text by Kara Walker].

ISBN: 9786185039325
ISBN: 618503932X
Physical Description: 86 pages : chiefly color illustrations ; 25 cm
Publisher: Athens, Greece : DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, [2018]
Copyright: &copy;2018

Walker, Kara Elizabeth, (artist.). Marta, Karen, (editor.). Marcopoulos, Ari, 1957- (photographer.). Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, (issuing body,, host institution.).

Summary:

Kara Walker's 'Figa', a sculpture monumental in both size and symbol, was installed at the Deste Foundation's Hydra Slaughterhouse in 2017. Once a part of Walker's colossal 2014 installation A Subtlety at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, Figa is made up of the hand piece from the anamorphic Sphinx that gestures a "fig sign", at once both a symbol of fertility and a "fuck you". In making a return to the site of the Sugar Factory work and the work's progeny in Hydra, this book offers critical insight on A Subtlety and Figa. Through extensive photographic documentation of the installation of the hand sculpture in Hydra by Ari Marcopoulos and seven fables written by Walker illustrating the power of folklore, mythology and black identity across the history of the United States, 'Figa' in book form captures a blockbuster exhibition in two parts.