Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953)
“My work endlessly explodes
the limits of tradition.”
Photo: Jerry Klineberg
“This vertical triptych visually depicts the mythical place where Ibo men, forcibly brought to the shores of South Carolina as slaves, took part in one of the most notorious acts of resistance during the antebellum period. Weems activates this tranquil landscape by textually articulating the story of Ebo Landing. The text panel recounts the tale of a group of men that declined to be slaves and walked into the water towards a certain death rather than acquiesce to a life of captivity. Juxtaposing this folktale with silver print photographs depicting the Sea Islands of today charges the images with new meaning, importing historical knowledge and referencing centuries of oppression by displacement. Visually reinforcing the elusive meaning of the story, the fallen trees in the composition convey the notion of an uprooted life faced with an arduous future.”
Lot 149. Ebo Landing, 1992
Two silver gelatin prints and one screen print text panel (three separate panels)
60 x 20 inches (overall)
Signed and numbered
Edition of 10, 2 AP
Carrie Mae Weems was born in Portland, Oregon in 1953. At an early age, she became interested in dance and street theater. At the age of 16, she had a daughter, Faith. In 1970, she moved from Portland to San Francisco to study modern dance and art. She continued her education in Los Angeles at the California Institute of the Arts and then the University of California, San Diego (MFA). She also attended classes at UC Berkeley.
In her early twenties, Weems was politically active in the labor movement and as a union organizer, and her first camera, given to her as a birthday gift, was for use in this purpose. Only later did she incorporate photography into her artistic endeavors. She was inspired by the work of the Kamoinge group of photographers working in Harlem (Barboza, Cowans, Shawn Walker, Beuford Smith, and Roy Decarava). She also took a class in photography taught by Dawoud Bey at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
By the early 1980s, Weems was combining photography, text and spoken word to create her artwork. Her first project in this genre was titled, Family Pictures and Stories. Weems produced her most well known series, The Kitchen Table, between 1989-1990.
Weems said,
“I use my own constructed image as a vehicle for questioning ideas about the role of tradition, the nature of the family, monogamy, polygamy, relationships between men and women, women and their children, and women and other women—underscoring the critical problems and possible resolves."
Weems continues to disrupt historical assumptions of power and what it means through her innovative methods. She has exhibited extensively, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA; and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN.
Her work is found in public and private collections around the world, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles