2010

no world

American, born 1969

In her series of six etchings An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters, Walker constructs enigmatic images that reflect on the traumatic history of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacy of violence and racial strife. In no world, one of two prints from the series on view here, Walker ambiguously alludes to the futile prospects for slaves who were shipped to the Americas. With no real hope of freedom, the woman submerged in the ocean might be swimming in an attempt to escape, or drowning as a victim of shipwreck. Meanwhile, the caricatured figures on shore suggest an unsettling future for those who survive the treacherous journey.