A new artwork in the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall is Kara Walker’s steam calliope which depicts slavery in the United States before (and during) the Civil War. Walker built it in 2018. Called the Katastwóf Karavan the piece is on display for free.
The artist was recently interviewed by NPR and described the inspiration for this work:
She conceived of this project while visiting the New Orleans neighborhood where kidnapped Africans were held before they were sold into the nightmare of plantations. As she contemplated the paucity of monuments to the people who lived through unspeakable horror, she heard the music of a steamboat wafting down the Mississippi River. The jolly sound, she realized, was unchanged since before the Civil War. Surely it was heard by enslaved people awaiting the auction block in Algiers Point.
You can see the artwork and hear it being played in this video take three years ago:
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