ARTIST FEATURE - Carrie Mae Weems.

   Discovering Carrie Mae Weems was no accident. Doing research about Visual Arts, I ran across her name on a number of occasions,and watching the BET Honors televised programme, she was a honoree, and it rang a bell, I definitely had to find out more, and after my journey into her work, I was propelled to do a special feature on this moving piece of ART. 
   Carrie was born on the 20th of April, 1953,in Portland, Oregon. One notable quote she made recently, further endearing me to her was,"Black experience is not really the main point, rather, complex,dimensional, human experience and social inclusion..is the real point. Another notable one,"The ideas I'm working with are ideas I'm committed to.I don't know how to soft-shoe them. I don't know how to make them more palpable".  I went through most of Carrie's works and I'll just show the  very one that inspired me most, which is one of Carrie's most prominent, The Kitchen Table Series, 1990. Kitchen table series is a photographic investigation of a single domestic space, where there were staged scenes of "battle around the family" between different levels of family. Racist themes and sexist labels debunked, Carrie examines the relationship between power and aesthetics, and uses personal biography to articulate broader truths. I could relate to Kitchen table series, in a simple way. We all have family, and there are different activities, and emotions running at all times.So, in the simplicity of a family, there is borderline complexity that makes it function. The battle between sexes for Power and beyond into further dynamics. These were depicted in form of ART. You can see the emotions running through every picture in the very basic unit of Life. Here are some images from Kitchen Table Series Below.
                 
                     

   

                               
                              
                            
                            
                           
                             
                            
                           
                           
                          
                         
 

                  X        VIDEO- KITCHEN TABLE SERIES    X

 Carrie used Photography as her tool of expression in this body of work. The fact that they can stand alone, and pass their message without any analysis is what inspired me. In a society where we hardly recognize Artists like Carrie, it was paramount to celebrate her work. "Weems positions herself as history's ghost''-- Nancy Princethal, Art in America.