Kara Walker – MCMXCIX

Kara Walker began this sketchbook in Munich in 1999, when she was 29 years old. Like most sketchbooks it served as a portal between the real world and the realm of her imagination. Although it was never intended to be shared, nevertheless quite a bit of work came out of this particular book, including the installation Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On), which is in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. However, that is an exception to the rule. For the most part the pages in this sketchbook reflect uneasy, unrefined, unfinished thoughts and anxieties, written and drawn with no objectives, no ulterior motives, and no filters.