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Kara Walker is known for her exploration and expression of black history and the way it has been portrayed to the masses. Her trademark haunting and exaggerated black cut outs have popped up in some of the country’s most important galleries and museums. Walker’s latest show, which is split between Sikkema Jenkins and LES branch of Lehman Maupin (both are up through June 4) seems to go back to very childlike forms of expression. The shows are made up of narrative comic book and puppet show like installations, and are most certainly not exclusively monochromatic. Walker branched out with her mediums in her recent show. At Lehman Maupin, “Fall From Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale,” is a video installation, where the stars are her infamous black paper cut outs. This time, however, they become puppet like, moving and speaking to create a narrative. In the work that bares the same name as the show title, we follow the disjointed story of a woman “having the blues.” The “puppet show” explores the supposedly guarded sexuality of Southern women and hyper-sexuality of black men. We see puppets enjoying sex but then brutally getting punished for it, as puppets beat each other and dismember each other. Their paper bodies are lit on fire to crumple and wither in the wind, to the horror of the other puppets involved. At the other half of the show at Sikkema Jenkins in Chelsea, Walker continues her more narrative works with poetic words and detailed illustrations, rather than leave us with haunting still images of silhouettes. The large scale black and white drawings that make up “Dust Jackets for the Niggerati – And Supporting Dissertations, Drawings Submitted Ruefully by Dr. Kara E. Walker,” explore the identity of black Americans throughout the 20th century. The artist explores the shifting identity and power of black Americans as they moved from rural to urban environments, and as they embrace a fluctuating cycle of destruction and renewal. The images are narrative and can almost be read like a comic book or a story board, but display a constant and somewhat confusing struggle with identity. Terri Ciccone is the founder and editor of Contrapposto Blog and an Art Ruby contributor [gallery order="DESC" columns="4" orderby="ID"]

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