UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles By Any Means Necessary: The Art of Carrie Mae Weems, 1978-1991 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History by Elizabeth Holland Searcy 2018 © Copyright by Elizabeth Holland Searcy 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION By Any Means Necessary: The Art of Carrie Mae Weems, 1978-1991 by Elizabeth Holland Searcy Doctor of Philosophy in Art History University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Steven D. Nelson, Chair This dissertation examines the photography of Carrie Mae Weems (born 1953) and her exploration issues of power within race, class, and gender. It focuses on the period of 1978-1991, from her first major series, Family Pictures and Stories (1978- 1984), to And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People (1991). In these early years of her career, Weems explores junctures of identity while levying a critique of American culture and its structures of dominance and marginalization. In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and Second Wave Feminism of the 1970s, scholars— particularly women of color—began looking seriously at the intersectional nature of identity and how it manifests in culture and lived experience. These issues are the central themes Weems’s career, and by looking at her early explorations this study provides critical context for her body of work. ii Chapter One examines Weems’s first major series, Family Pictures and Stories (1978-1984). In this work, Weems uses autobiography as ethnography along with American and photographic history to question the cultural invisibility of black people. In her manipulation of personal images and history, Weems questions the process of representation, its consequences, and the constructed nature of power. Chapter Two juxtaposes her late-1980s series Ain’t Jokin’ (1987-88) and Colored People (1989-90) to explore the black tradition of signifyin’ found throughout literature and art, a framework that shows how art and culture create layers of meaning. When Weems signifies in these two series, she plays with literal and metaphorical meanings of jokes and mental associations about or applied to black people. The final chapter evaluates the role of vernacular culture in three bodies of work, namely American Icons (1988-89), Then What? Photographs and Folklore (1990), and And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People (1991). Each of these works use folklore—including oral traditions and utilitarian objects—to connect the dots between culture, race, and power. By transforming these objects into tools of political activism, Weems positions her work within a larger radical tradition. iii The dissertation of Elizabeth Holland Searcy is approved. Miwon Kwon Mary Nooter Roberts Dell Upton Steven D. Nelson, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgements xi Vita xii Introduction 1 1 (Black) Families, (Black) Stories 24 2 Signifyin’ in Ain’t Jokin’ and Colored People 61 3 The Artist as an Intellectual Revolutionary 97 Epilogue 134 Figures 144 Bibliography 237 v LIST OF FIGURES Figures begin on page 144. Figure I.1: Carrie Mae Weems, Mother with Children, 1980-82 Figure I.2: Carrie Mae Weems dancing with San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop, ca. 1971 Figure I.3: Andres Serrano, Piss Christ, 1987 Figure I.4: Guerilla Girls, Relax Senator Helms, The Art World is Your Kind of Place!, 1989 Figure 1.1: Installation view of Family Pictures and Stories at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in 2012 Figure 1.2: Portrait of Frederick Douglass, ca. 1850 Figure 1.3: Advertisement for Madame C. J. Walker—Preparations, 1920 Figure 1.4: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Alice, 1978-84 Figure 1.5: Wadsworth Jarrell, Black Family, 1969 Figure 1.6: Carolyn Lawrence, Uphold Your Men, 1971 Figure 1.7: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Dad sorting and packing cow hides, 1978-84 Figure 1.8: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Momma at work, 1978-84 Figure 1.9: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Family Reunion, 1978-84 Figure 1.10: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Carrie Mae, 1978-84 Figure 1.11: Installation view of “The Family of Man” at the Museum of Modern Art, 1955 Figure 1.12: Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava, The Sweet Flypaper of Life, 1955 Figure 1.13: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Welcome Home, 1978-84 Figure 1.14: Clarissa Sligh, Waiting on Daddy, 1987 vi Figure 1.15: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Jessie, 1978-84 Figure 1.16: Pat Ward Williams, Ghosts that Smell Like Cornbread, 1986 Figure 1.17: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Son-Son, 1978-84 Figure 1.18: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Dad and Son-Son, 1978-84 Figure 1.19: Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, Mom and Dad with grandkids, 1978-84 Figure 2.1: Installation view of Ain’t Jokin’ (top four works) at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain, 2010 Figure 2.2: Installation view of Colored People (far left) and Ain’t Jokin’ (middle right) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2014 Figure 2.3: Portrait of Sojourner Truth, 1864 Figure 2.4: Carrie Mae Weems, from Ain’t Jokin’, Black Man Holding Watermelon, 1987-88 Figure 2.5: Carrie Mae Weems, from Ain’t Jokin’, Black Woman With Chicken, 1987-88 Figure 2.6: Alden Fruit Vinegar trade card, ca. 1880s Figure 2.7: F.W. Guerin, untitled photograph, ca. 1902 Figure 2.8: Little Rastus’s idea of Granpa in Heaven, ca. 1913 Figure 2.9: Group Material, Interior spreads of Inserts, 1988 Figure 2.10: Carrie Mae Weems with Group Material, Peaches, Liz, Tanikka, and Elaine, 1988 Figure 2.11: Carrie Mae Weems, from Ain’t Jokin’, What’s a cross between an ape and a nigger?, 1987-88 Figure 2.12: Installation views of What did Lincoln say after a drinking bout? from Ain’t Jokin’ showing the moveable plaque at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2102 Figure 2.13: Carrie Mae Weems, from Ain’t Jokin’, What’s black on the inside, yellow on the outside, and looks funny going over a cliff?, 1987-88 Figure 2.14: Pat Ward Williams, Accused: Blowtorch, Paddlock, 1987 vii Figure 2.15: Lorna Simpson, Necklines, 1989 Figure 2.16: Lorna Simpson, Untitled (Two Necklines), 1989 Figure 2.17: Carrie Mae Weems, from Ain’t Jokin’, How do you get a nigger out of a tree?, 1987-88 Figure 2.18: Carrie Mae Weems, from Colored People, Golden Yella Girl, 1989-90 Figure 2.19: Carrie Mae Weems, from Colored People, Red Bone Boy, 1989-90 Figure 2.20: Carrie Mae Weems, from Colored People, Moody Blue Girl, 1989-90 Figure 2.21: Carrie Mae Weems, from Colored People, Magenta Colored Girl, 1989-90 Figure 2.22: Adrian Piper, Colored People, 1991 Figure 2.23: Byron Kim, Synecdoche, 1991-present Figure 3.1: Carrie Mae Weems, Portrait of Myself as an Intellectual Revolutionary, 1988 Figure 3.2: Carrie Mae Weems, from American Icons, Untitled (Letter Holder), 1988-89 Figure 3.3: Carrie Mae Weems, from American Icons, Untitled (Salt and Pepper Shaker), 1988-89 Figure 3.4: Carrie Mae Weems, from American Icons, Untitled (Orleans), 1988-89 Figure 3.5: Jeff Donaldson, Aunt Jemima and the Pillsbury Doughboy, 1963 Figure 3.6: Joe Overstreet, The New Aunt Jemima, 1964 Figure 3.7: Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972 Figure 3.8: Carrie Mae Weems, from American Icons, Untitled (Ashtray), 1988-89 Figure 3.9: Carrie Mae Weems, from American Icons, Untitled (Lamp), 1988-89 Figure 3.10: Album cover for “Famous Songs of Bert Williams,” 1940 Figure 3.11: Carrie Mae Weems, Ode to Affirmative Action, 1989 Figure 3.12: Thomas Nast, “‘The nigger must go’ and “The Chinese must go,’” from Harper’s Weekly, September 13, 1879 Figure 3.13: Carrie Mae Weems, Then What? Photographs and Folklore, 1990 viii Figure 3.14: Carrie Mae Weems, untitled spread from Then What? Photographs and Folklore, 1990 Figure 3.15: Renée Stout, Fetish No. 2, 1988 Figure 3.16: Renée Stout, Trinity, 1992 Figure 3.17: Renée Stout, My Altar/My Grandmother’s Altar, 1992 Figure 3.18: Carrie Mae Weems, from Then What? Photographs and Folklore, Hat on Bed, 1990 Figure 3.19: Carrie Mae Weems, from Then What? Photographs and Folklore, Jim, If You Choose, 1990 Figure 3.20: Gary Simmons, Lineup, 1993 Figure 3.21: Installation view of And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People at the New Museum, 1991 Figure 3.22: Walker Evans, “Beauties of the Common Tool,” 1955 Figure 3.23: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, An Informational System, 1990 Figure 3.24: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, Some Theory, 1991 Figure 3.25: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, A Song to Sing, 1991 Figure 3.26: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, A Bell to Ring, 1991 Figure 3.27: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, By Any Means Necessary, 1991 Figure 3.28: Glenn Ligon, Notes on the Margin of the Black Book, 1991-3 Figure 3.29: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, A Hammer, 1991 Figure 3.30: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, And a Sickle, 1991 Figure 3.31: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, A Hot Spot in a Corrupt World, 1991 ix Figure 3.32: Carrie Mae Weems, from And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, A Precise Moment in