Label Text:
Exhibition Label, 40 Years / 40 Artists, January 22–March 8, 2015:
In Carrie Mae Weems’s 2006 black-and-white photographic series titled Roaming, she appears dressed in a long dark dress standing before monumental architecture and sweeping landscapes in and around Rome. Her back to the camera, she confronts these sites and invites the viewer to share her perspective—and her position—in relation to these historically charged locales.
On creating this compelling series, Weems has stated: “Architecture, in its essence . . . is very much about power. If we think about a place like Rome . . . what one is made to feel is the power of the state in relationship to . . . the general populace. You are always aware that you are sort of a minion in relationship to this enormous edifice—the edifice of power. . . . I thought, then, perhaps . . . I could use my own skin in a sort of series of performances. That I could use my own body as a way of leading the viewer into those spaces—highly aware—and challenging those spaces.” - Loretta Yarlow
Speak to Me of Rivers: An Exploration of Race, Identity, and Lived Experience in African American Culture; February 12 - March 3, 2019:
“Architecture, in its essence . . . is very much about power. If we think about a place like Rome . . . what one is made to feel is the power of the state in relationship to . . . the general populace. You are always aware that you are sort of a minion in relationship to this enormous edifice — the edifice of power. . . . I thought, then, perhaps . . . I could use my own skin in a sort of series of performances. That I could use my own body as a way of leading the viewer into those spaces — highly aware — and challenging those spaces.” — Carrie Mae Weems
Tags:
architecture; landscapes; multiculturalism; exterior; politics; race; rural; self-portraits; travel; African American Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=UM+2014.17 |
