Summary: Our October episode examines three artists who acknowledge, process, and relive chapters of American history found outside the mainstream narrative. Ann Hamilton, An-My Lê, and Kara Walker each use their work to probe the distortions created by conventional representations of the past. First, Ann Hamilton digs beneath the surface of the officially sanctioned labor history of Charleston, South Carolina, in her piece "indigo blue". Next up, photographer An-My Lê, whose series "Small Wars" documents combat reenactors in the forests of the American South, explores the cumulative personal and collective effects of the Vietnam War. Concluding the episode, Kara Walker shares the artistic and historical tensions central to her installation "No mere words...", as well as her "uneasiness with her own imagination." Each SFMOMA Artcast brings you illuminating audio and video interviews with artists, curators, and visitors as they respond to the works on view and in the museum's collection.
