Stacey Rate

This image by Kara Walker is a great example of dominant, subordinate, and accentual shapes.

This artwork has many dominant, subordinate, and accentual shapes. Even though some of the shapes are very similar in size, they have different shapes and negative and positive spaces so they aren’t symmetrical. The blood spurts coming out of the girls arms are all very stylized and unique. They each have the same basic shape but the one on the bottom is thinner than the other two. It also has more smaller spurts coming out of it. the other two bigger blood spurts coming out of her right wrist are almost as if they are going to come back at the girl and hurt her more in some way. The subordinate shapes appear in the woman’s dress, where there is a part cutout and in the space above her head that’s also in between her arms. It almost forms a square, a very simple shape, but she has altered it so it’s more detailed. the accentual shapes are in between the two piles of blood on the ground and in between her feet. you also see some where her wrists are cut and where some of the blood spurts are coming right out of her wrist.