JUXTAPOSITION CAN BE INCREDIBLY ILLUMINATING. Earlier this year, Kara Walker collaborated with Bernardaud and LizWorks to create a limited-edition porcelain pitcher and this week the New York Times asked J. Crew Creative Director Jenna Lyons and singer-songwriter Courtney Love what they thought about it.
In a new feature called “Take Two: A Dual Review of What’s New,” the newspaper’s T Magazine enlisted Lyons and Love to share their opinions on several products including Dog Magazine, $600 Beats by Dre headphones nested in a plaster pillow, fragrance inspired by Diana Vreeland and Walker’s $450 pitcher. Their comments about Walker’s work could not have been more diametrically opposed:
“It’s beautifully rendered, but I think for white people to own it would be kind of tacky. I just think it’s politically incorrect, and knowing that I’m politically correct is important to me.” — Courtney Love, T Magazine
“I actually have one of these. I use it to water the plants. It’s gorgeous.”
— Jenna Lyons, T Magazine
Throughout her incredibly successful and critically acclaimed career, Walker has used references to the antebellum South to explore issues of race, gender, power and subjugation in a variety of mediums. Her entire practice is infused with challenging imagery, eliciting ire in a number of black observers and discomfort among some white ones, so it is fascinating to read, side-by-side, such disparate reactions to one of the artist’s more benign creations.
Produced in an edition of 1,000, the two-sided pitcher issued in May is designed with silhouettes of a black woman wearing a handkerchief. What do you think of Kara Walker’s limited-edition work? CT
TOP IMAGES: Courtesy Bernardaud
