Aftershock

Huckleberry Finn

at the
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
San Francisco

An Essay in Seven Parts by Erik Bakke

I. Kara Walker (1969) and Frederick Douglass (circa 1818-1895)
(pages 2-12)

II. Allison Smith (1972) and German Colonialism (1848)
(pages 13-23)

III. Geoffrey Farmer (1967) and Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
(pages 24-26)

IV. Edgar Arceneaux (1972) and Triangular Slave Trade (1502-1862)
(pages 27-28)

V. Glenn Ligon (1960) and Caricature (1885)
(pages 29-32)

VI. Mark Twain (1835-1910) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
(pages 33-34)

VII. Images (2010)

Kara Walker, The Nigger Huck Finn Pursues Happiness Beyond the Narrow Constraints of Your Overdetermined Thesis on Freedom—Drawn and Quartered by Mister Kara Walkerberry, with Condolences to the Authors (detail), 2010, cut paper and eight framed gouache paintings, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesyHuckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Back wall: Kara Walker, The Nigger Huck Finn Pursues Happiness Beyond the Narrow Constraints of Your Overdetermined Thesis on Freedom—Drawn and Quartered by Mister Kara Walkerberry, with Condolences to the Authors (detail), 2010, cut paper and eight framed gouache paintings, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Kara Walker, The Nigger Huck Finn Pursues Happiness Beyond the Narrow Constraints of Your Overdetermined Thesis on Freedom—Drawn and Quartered by Mister Kara Walkerberry, with Condolences to the Authors (detail), 2010, cut paper and eight framed gouache paintings, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Corner and right wall: Kara Walker, The Nigger Huck Finn Pursues Happiness Beyond the Narrow Constraints of Your Overdetermined Thesis on Freedom—Drawn and Quartered by Mister Kara Walkerberry, with Condolences to the Authors (detail), 2010, cut paper and eight framed gouache paintings, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Left wall: Ellen Gallagher, Glister, 2010. oil, ink, polymer, graphite, and paper on canvas, 24 x 24 in. (61 x 61 cm). Courtesy the artist. Pedestal: Kirsten Pieroth, untitled (Essence), 2010, boiled paperback edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and jam jar, 5 3∕8 x 3 1∕8 x 3 1∕8 in. (13.7 x 7.9 x 7.9 cm). Courtesy the artist. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Left foreground: Jason Meadows, Huck and Jim Meet the Wheel, 2010, steel, wood, aluminum, lantern, and vinyl, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles. Right foreground: Simon Fujiwara, Artists’ Book Club: Hakuruberri Fuin no Monogatari, 2010, digital video and installation, color, sound, 26:43 minutes, installation dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Left wall: Glenn Ligon, Runaways, 1993, series of 10 lithographs, 16 x 22 in. (40.6 x 55.9 cm) each. Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Left ceiling: Yinka Shonibare MBE, Jim’s Escape, 2010, 25 kites, wood, piano wire, and Dutch wax printed cotton, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; and James Cohan Gallery, New York. Center wall: Hank Willis Thomas, Gold Dust Twins, 2010, polished, powder-coated aluminum, 48 x 37 x 1 ¼ in. (121.9 x 94 x 3.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Right wall: David Hammons, African-American Flag, 1990, dyed cotton, 56 x 88 in. (142.2 x 223.5 cm). Courtesy the Hudgins family, Englewood, New Jersey. Floor: Geoffrey Farmer, You will not know about me (detail), 2010, mixed media, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Left wall: Hank Willis Thomas, Gold Dust Twins, 2010, polished, powder-coated aluminum, 48 x 37 x 1 ¼ in. (121.9 x 94 x 3.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Back wall: David Hammons, African-American Flag, 1990, dyed cotton, 56 x 88 in. (142.2 x 223.5 cm). Courtesy the Hudgins family, Englewood, New Jersey. Floor: Geoffrey Farmer, You will not know about me, 2010, mixed media, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesyHuckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Left wall: David Hammons, African-American Flag, 1990, dyed cotton, 56 x 88 in. (142.2 x 223.5 cm). Courtesy the Hudgins family, Englewood, New Jersey. Floor: Geoffrey Farmer, You will not know about me, 2010, mixed media, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. Right hanging from ceiling: Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jim Beam, 2010, plywood table, stainless steel screws and chains, iron, mango wood oars, cans, barrels, steel cable, fishing pole, bananas, and paint, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Allison Smith, A Good Haul, 2010, playing cards, whiskey bottles, cloth masks, calico dresses, sun bonnet, women’s underclothes, men’s clothing, straw hat, baby bottle, chest, trunk, tin lantern, butcher knife, Barlow knife, tallow candles, tin candlestick, gourd, tin cup, bed quilt, reticule, needles, pins, beeswax, buttons, thread, hatchet, nails, fishing line, buckskin, dog collar, horseshoe, medicine, curry comb, fiddle bow, and wooden leg, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Left pedestal: Thomas Holland, Bust of Mark Twain, ca. 1966, plaster, bronze, and wood, 14 x 5 x 5 in. (35.6 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm). Courtesy the Mark Twain Papers and Project, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Center pedestal (left book): Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885, book (Charles L. Webster and Company edition with illustrations by Edward W. Kemble), 7 x 8 5∕8 x 1 ¼ in. (17.8 x 21.9 x 3.2 cm). Courtesy the Mark Twain Papers and Project, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Right pedestal: Hammond Multiplex typewriter, ca. 1885, oak and metal, body: 8 ¼ in. x 14 x 14 in. (21 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm); cover: 7 ¼ x 14 ¼ x 13 ½ in. (18.4 x 36.2 x 34.3 cm). Private collection. Back wall: Thomas Edison, Mark Twain at Stormfield, 1909, DVD (transferred from film), black and white, silent, 3:30 min. Courtesy the Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Case in foreground: James T. Lloyd, Lloyd’s Map of the Lower Mississippi River from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, 1862, paper map, 175 x 10 in. (444.5 x 25.4 cm). Courtesy the Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans. Pedestal on right: Robert E. Lee steamboat, ca. 1926, copper, 30 x 21 x 8 ¼ in. (76.2 x 53.3 x 21 cm). Courtesy the Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans. Wall behind pedestal: Alec Soth, Jim, Wax Museum, Hannibal, Missouri (left image), 2002, chromogenic print, 24 x 20 in. (50.8 x 61 cm), other seven prints to right all 2002, chromogenic prints, 20 x 24 in. Courtesy the artist. Through doorway: Thomas Edison, Mark Twain at Stormfield, 1909, DVD (transferred from film), black and white, silent, 3:30 min. Courtesy the Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Case in foreground: James T. Lloyd, Lloyd’s Map of the Lower Mississippi River from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, 1862, paper map, 175 x 10 in. (444.5 x 25.4 cm). Courtesy the Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans. Left wall left: Hank Willis Thomas, After 61 Years of Service, I Ben, Promoted, 2008, LightJet print, 56 ½ x 46 ½ in. (143.5 x 118.1 cm). Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Left wall corner: Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972, mixed media, 11 ¾ x 8 x 2 ¾ in. (29.8 x 20.3 x 7 cm). Courtesy the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (selected by the Committee for the Acquisition of Afro-American Art). Right wall corner: Horace Pippin, Uncle Tom, 1944, oil on canvas, 16 3∕8 x 18 ¼ in. (41.6 x 46.4 cm). Courtesy the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, gift of Larry Eberbach, 1984; Cabin in the Cotton IV, 1944, oil on canvas, 16 x 27 1∕8 in. (40.6 x 68.9 cm). Courtesy the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Jaffe, parents of Judith Jaffe Silber (class of 1957). Right wall right: Clementine Hunter, Cotton, ca. 1975, oil on upson board, four parts, 5 ½ x 24 in. (14 x 61 cm) each. Courtesy Thomas N. Whitehead, Natchitoches, Louisiana; Hauling Sugar Cane and Syrup Making, ca. 1975, oil on upson board, 18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm).Courtesy Thomas N. Whitehead, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Photo credit: Johnna Arnold, 2010. Photo courtesy Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.