Stacey Rate

This is another image by Kara Walker. It is a very good example of negative and positive space and dominant, subordinate, and accentual shapes. This piece of art work is mostly negative space but your eye is immediately drawn to the black on the page because there is very little of it. Even though there is very little positive (black) spaces on this piece she still managed to have dominant, subordinate, and accentual shapes. The dominant shape would be the vine that the baby or young child is standing on. The subordinate shape would be the child and the accentual shape would be the spaces in between the vine and the white space in between the child’s hands and legs. At first you just think that it’s a person about to walk off of the vine and then realize that it’s a young child. What Kara Walker did by using a young child instead of an adult or anyone else is she created tension. Kara Walker uses negative and positive space and dominant, subordinate, and accentual shapes very well in all of her works.