Boo Hoo , 2000
40.6 x 21.8 in (h x w)
Linoleum cut on paper; Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, CSU, gift of Polly and Mark Addison, 2009.2.21

Walker's work inspired me to explore complicated subject matter in art-making. I first became aware of Walker's silhouettes cutouts as a freshman in college, after a visit to the SFMOMA. The snake's motif will occur in other work I selected from the collection as well as my work from about the period during the Khmer Rouge regime and the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The whip, an object of torture, "pain on the body," is a symbol that will carry forward in the installation. The silhouette drawings were a precursor to the invention of photography. Light from a candle was projected onto a wall, while a shadow of a sitter was drawn in profile. This somewhat mechanic act was the basic of photography, capturing a shadow.

-Binh Danh

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