Three Decades of Photography and Video O ver the past thirty years, Carrie specifics of our historic moment.”1 From a young age, Weems has she quickly realized its potential Mae Weems (b. 1953) has longed Indeed, her art does effectively sought to better understand the as a tool for tangibly expressing to insert marginalized peoples and provoke contemplation on equality world surrounding her. She initially abstract political and social theories hidden histories into the canoni- as it relates to race, gender, and thought insight might be revealed and for inciting change. Weems cal record. She does this not only class. Weems is also interested in through studying such fields as ge- studied the work of such well-known to bring erased experiences to questioning who constructs power netics, anthropology, or astronomy. documentary photographers as light but to provide a more multi- paradigms, histories, and identities, With her parents’ blessing, she set Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert dimensional picture of humanity how they are formed, and why. In out on her own at seventeen, leav- Frank. But, perhaps more importantly, that ultimately will spur greater recent years, she has moved ing her family in Portland, Oregon, by looking at images by Roy DeCarava awareness and compassion. Weems beyond the specific to address to explore the possibilities. Weems and other African Americans, she believes strongly that “my responsi- broad humanitarian struggles became involved in grassroots also saw the medium’s ability to bility as an artist is to . make art, against entrenched, oppressive Marxist efforts, in keeping with a rewrite black cultural myths and beautiful and powerful, that adds practices. Although the subjects of family tradition of political engage- provide counterpoints to negative and reveals; to beautify the mess of her work are often African Ameri- ment, and joined Anna Halprin’s perceptions and stereotypes. Weems a messy world, to heal the sick and cans, Weems wants “people of color formally and ideologically progressive pursued a formal education in pho- feed the helpless; to shout bravely to stand for the human multitudes” San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop. tography, receiving a bachelor of from the roof-tops and storm and for her art to resonate with In 1974, a friend gave her a camera fine arts degree from the California barricaded doors and voice the audiences of all backgrounds.2 for her twenty-first birthday, and Institute of the Arts in 1981 and Fig. 1: Afro-Chic (video still), 2010. DVD, 5 minutes, 30 seconds. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Fig. 2: Family Reunion from Family Pictures and Stories, 1978–84. Gelatin silver print, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy of the artist and © Carrie Mae Weems Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © Carrie Mae Weems a master of arts degree from the experiences. During the 1980s University of California, San Diego, in Weems also examined general 1984. During her studies, she became aspects relating to race and racism, interested in the field of folklore, often appropriating objects and which she saw as an unmediated words and re-presenting them as form of communication that provid- biting reminders of the persistence ed authentic insight into a society’s of bigoted attitudes. She inves- values and beliefs. Weems entered a tigated the way that elements of graduate program in folklore at the mainstream popular culture, such as University of California, Berkeley, racist jokes and black memorabilia, and began to incorporate African can perpetuate demeaning stereo- American vernacular traditions into types. In Kitchen Table Series (1990, her photographs, the combination figs. 3 and 4), the artist continued of which allowed her to articulate to reject and redefine the way in visually “real facts, by real people.”3 which marginalized figures—in this case, “the other of the other,” black In her earliest works, Weems photo- women—are represented.4 The graphed elements of surrounding photographs and text panels trace communities and matters relating a period in a woman’s life as she to contemporary African American experiences the blossoming, then identity. Dissatisfied with the repre- loss, of love, the responsibilities of sentation (what few there were) of motherhood, and the desire to be African Americans in general and the perception of black families in particular, she created an intimate yet unvarnished portrait of her own large and close-knit family in her first major series, Family Pictures and Stories (1978–84, fig. 2). Accom- panying the frank black-and-white photographs are written captions and audio recordings, which provide more information on the family members, their interactions with one another, and their shared history. Weems bestows value on her Fig. 4: Text Panel 7 (detail) from Kitchen Table Series, family and, by extension, on other 1990. Screenprint on panel, 11 x 11 in. Collection of Eric Fig. 3: Untitled (Man and mirror) from Kitchen Table Series, 1990. Gelatin silver print, 27 1/4 x 27 1/4 in. Collection of and Liz Lefkofsky, 115-128.2010, promised gift to the Art Eric and Liz Lefkofsky, 115-128.2010, promised gift to the Art Institute of Chicago. © Carrie Mae Weems. Photography © under-recognized peoples by giving Institute of Chicago. © Carrie Mae Weems. Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago artistic form to their largely ignored The Art Institute of Chicago (1991–92), in which the artist docu- ments the unique Gullah communities off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. Photographs, text panels, and inscribed ceramic plates related to Gullah folklore commemorate the existence and endurance of little- known African and related African American traditions. The Louisiana Project (2003), commissioned as part of the bicentennial celebration of the Louisiana Purchase, is a critical examination of the racial complexi- ties distinct to Louisiana as well as the relationship between the New South and its antebellum history. Like New Fig. 6: An Anthropological Debate from From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried, 1995–96. Chromogenic print Orleans, Cuba has long captured with etched text on glass, 26 1/2 x 22 3/4 in. Collection Weems’s imagination due to its of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift on behalf of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern particular place within the African Art. From an original daguerreotype taken by J.T. Zealy, 1850. Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Copyright diaspora as well as the Cold War. Her President & Fellows of Harvard College, 1977. All rights reserved. Digital image © 2012, MoMA, N.Y. 2002 series devoted to the island (fig. 5) ruminates on its slave-based sugarcane and tobacco industries, beyond, to Africa, Europe, and the the spirit and legacy of the revolution Caribbean. During extended visits that ushered in the longest-surviving to these places, she looked to the communist state in the Western Hemi- surrounding land and architecture sphere, and the present condition of Fig. 5: Listening for the Sounds of Revolution from Dreaming in Cuba, 2002. Gelatin silver print, 28 1/2 x 28 1/2 in. Cour- tesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © Carrie Mae Weems to create a communion with the ordinary citizens now cut off from both inhabitants, both past and present. American and Russian resources. She states, “I start every project by an engaged member of her com- personal to become universal and reading and by looking around in In addition to identity and place, munity. Throughout, the protagonist for the black figure to represent an attempt to develop a sense of Weems has made several series (Weems herself) evokes an underlying humanity as a whole. place. It’s often the little known in response to specific historical sense of strength and self-aware- facts and secrets that make a place/ situations—both well known and ness. Although it features a black A desire to further examine the thing/person; the little things more obscure. The Jefferson Suite subject and is loosely related to her underlying causes and effects of illuminate and reveal the essence (1999), for example, was inspired own experiences, the story is meant racism, slavery, and imperialism of a thing.”5 A sensitive portrayal by DNA tests that proved there had to cross racial and class boundaries, spurred Weems to travel widely, of place results, as demonstrated been a sexual relationship between reflecting Weems’s wish for the throughout the United States and through the Sea Island Series Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. It explores the ca- Weems has also created work that pacity of science to provide historical transcends concerns about race, correctives and so-called advance- gender, or class, especially as expe- ments such as cloning and eugeni- rienced in the United States, to ad- cally engineered babies. Weems laid dress the abiding, universal pursuit out the history of black subjects in for equality and justice. In the in- photography and the larger social stallation Ritual and Revolution (1998, perceptions that can accompany fig. 7), she broadens the geographic them in the series From Here I Saw and historical scope of her focus What Happened and I Cried (1995–96, through photographs of ancient fig. 6). She appropriatied historical Assyrian steps, Mayan courtyards, images, including nineteenth-cen- and crumbling Greek sculptures tury daguerreotypes of slaves and printed onto thin muslin scrims. As inscribed them with such labels as the viewer walks through the hang- “You became a scientific profile,” ing layers of delicate fabric, one is “a negroid type,” and “an anthropo- forced to consider the inevitable logical debate.” Weems ultimately passage of time, fall of empires, dismantles these negative intentions and struggles for power. Weems through her intervention and gives commemorated International Work- voice to the disempowered subjects.