Traffic-stopping ‘Karavan’ at Whitney
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Crowds of art lovers sat in the
middle of Gansevoort St., which
was closed to traffic, in front of
the Whitney Museum last Saturday.
The road was covered with a thick
carpet of green grass, providing a
mini-park for listening to steam-whistled
tunes emanating from a calliope
housed in a parade wagon at the corner
of West Street for a one-day presentation/
installation. Free cotton candy
and popcorn were given out adding to
this carnival-like atmosphere.
“Katastwóf Karavan” by Kara Walksented
“black protest and celebration”
and included the music of Jimmy Cliff,
Guy Carawan, Pete Seeger, Jimi Hendenrix,
Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding,
and Prince as well as traditional songs.
Whitney exhibiting artist Jason Moran
played a keyboard that activated the
steam pipes until the event wrapped up
at 6 p.m.
The “Katastwóf Karavan” originally
showed as a commissioned site-specific
work at the Mississippi River Trail in
New Orleans in February 2018. Its
“Katastwóf” title is Haitian Creole for
“catastrophe,” and refers to the violent
and dehumanizing experiences for the
slaves.
er featured her signature silhouette
figures on the wagon’s sides and were
combined with a 32-note steam calliope
resembling those on Mississippi River
steamboats.
The work references 19th riverboats,
Industrial Revolution-era inventions,
and slavery in the American south.
On one of the longer panels, an enslaved
family marches under their overseer’s
wielding a whip. One short side
of the wagon presents a black woman
in profile in the woods, her gaze toward
the sky; the other short side shows a
cotton field of white bolls floating upward.
Walker programmed the customfabricated
instrument with a compilation
of songs — playing at set times
during the afternoon — that repre
18 October 24, 2019 Schneps Media 3