Scherenschnitte

Kara Walker

I was first introduced to Kara Walker in a Post-Modern Art History class I took with Joe Lucchesi. Kara got her MFA from RISD, which is where she started working with paper silhouettes. The medium is perfectly suited for her work, which is normally very large and environmental. The Scherenschnitte allows for large scale work to be completed quickly with clean vector-like lines. This can best be seen in “Slavery! Slavery! Presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE PanoramicJourney into Picturesque Southern Slavery or "Life at 'Ol' Virginny'sHole' (sketches from Plantation Life)" See the Peculiar Institution asnever before! All cut from black paper by the able hand of Kara ElizabethWalker, an Emancipated Negress and leader in her Cause.” Here Kara is using the Scherenschnitte to immerse the viewer in the polar cyclorama. Kara’s work addresses racial and sexual problems that are often presented and processed in extremes, in that the poles of the issues are what receive attention and not the realistic grey area that exists in the middle. This work resounds with me because it is environmental and I have a great interest in creating environments. The work also addresses the cultural groups and ethnic heritages that Kara ascribes to. In the projection piece im working on now, I would like to include a comment on human sexuality, the sex trade and societal perceptions of the polarity of socially relevant issues.

Kara also works in projection and video. In her projection piece she applies the Scherenschnitte images to the wall and projects colors on them via a projector on the floor. The projectors are on the floor. This involves the viewer in the piece because the viewer’s shadow joins the silhouettes on the wall. I would like to involve the viewer in my work in some way. I was thinking about having the video file I will be projecting move or rock slightly so that the viewer will become disoriented or sea-sick after prolonged exposure.

In her video Kara explores the mythology black culture as it is seen through the mass cultural eye. It also comments on how historical atrocities can be distanced culturally from the people that committed them.

This concept in reference to the Holocaust in relation to the videos Scherenschnitte animated style ties Kara to Lotte Reiniger, a shadow-puppet animator.

Shadow puppets have been used to tell mythological and cultural stories by many different civilizations and connects Kara’s work to an innate system of universal semiotics.

Lotte Reiniger

A good friend of mine is working on an SMP that focuses on Scherenschnitte and I came across Lotte when I was looking into the technique myself. Lotte started her film career as a special effects animator. She then created the oldest animated film to survive till the present “The Adventures of PrinceAchmed.” After this she made several short films set to classical operas. She then moved on to animate Grimm’s fairy tales. This adaptation of the old stories into an animated medium exposed a new generation that was obsessed with picture shows and talkies to the tales that inspired their grandparents. This type of cultural re-introduction is pretty fascinating and it came at a crucial time. When Lotte was making the Grimm’s shorts at a time where Germany was struggling to regain its cultural pride and identity post WWII. Lotte’s animation style and process are also proving to be influential. A video was produced showing how Lotte made her masterworks. I wish to update this animation technique using new media in the same way that Lotte updated the Grimm tales using the new media available in her time.

Lotte also invented new machines to complete her work. This type of innovation resounds with me. Through her creation of a multiplane camera, Lotte was able to create lush environments for her Scherenschnitte characters to inhabit. In the projection project I will be creating my own environment in an existing environment. This is similar but different from Lotte’s work in that Lotte’s work would have been originally screened in a cinema and would have visually enveloped the viewer. My work will be publicly displayed in a semi-outdoor setting and only be visually enveloping if the viewer wants to be enveloped.

Lotte’s work took a traditional German medium of Scherenschnitte and adapted it to her generations New Media of film and animation. This helped reaffirm a young generation of their rich cultural heritage while establishing a bond with the past.