Carrie Mae Weems
Born in 1953 · United States
Questioning who creates the narratives.
The story
Carrie Mae Weems combines photography, text, video and installation to explore history, identity and power. Kitchen Table Series brings domestic scenes together around a single setting. Other projects reuse archives and examine the conditions under which Black people are represented. Her work also questions the institutions and cultural narratives that decide what becomes visible, what deserves to be remembered and who may speak.
Understanding the work
Look at recurring settings, changing poses and texts. Montage turns a domestic scene or an archive into a question about how collective histories are written and passed on.
Key works and series
Kitchen Table Series; From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried; Museums.
Sources & further exploration
Works in collections.
10 recordsPhotographs to explore on museum and library websites, with titles, dates and processes. Each link opens the collection record and its image where one is available.
- MoMA · 1995-96
From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried
Chromogenic prints with sand-blasted text on glass
- MoMA · 1995-96
For Your Names You Took Hope & Humble
Chromogenic print with sand-blasted text on glass
- MoMA · 1995-96
Your Resistence was Found in the Food You Placed on the Master's Table-Ha
Chromogenic print with sand-blasted text on glass
- MoMA · 1995-96
Out of Deep Rivers Mixed Matched Mulattos a Variety of Types Mind You-Ha Sprang Up Everywhere
Chromogenic print with sand-blasted text on glass
- MoMA · 1995-96
In Your Sing Song Prayer You Asked Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?
Chromogenic print with sand-blasted text on glass
