On Kara Walker's "Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart"

The last part of Kara Walker’s installation Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart from 1994 shows a black silhouette literally flying away. Under such a title as the one above, this figure encapsulates the leaving of slavery from the South: it rises up and is banished. Apologies for the quality of the following image.


On another level, however, the figure encapsulates the African American myth / folklore of the slave who, without growing wings or feathers, took off and flew back to his spiritual homeland, and out of bondage. This myth acts as the crux of Toni Morrison’s 1977 novel Song of Solomon, and in many ways this section of Walker’s installation acts as a depiction of the final scene from that novel.

The figure in the air represents the character of Milkman, leaping as Shalimar had, to ride the air. On top of the rock, there sits a round object with possibly a rose coming out of it, which can be understood as the bag Pilate had carried the bones in to bury them. The figure in the bottom left hand corner which looks like a head rising out of the water is Guitar, shrouded in mystery as he tries once again to kill Milkman. The large unorthodox protruding stomach of Milkman’s figure represents the weight of his family history, literally the burden of all he has learnt of his eccentric family history.