Carrie Mae Weems Tee
Carrie Mae Weems Tee
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In her Kitchen Table Series, 1990, Weems took on the dual role of photographer and model to explore the complex realities of women’s lives and the ways Black women in particular have been represented culturally in the United States—working within and pushing against stereotypes. In the series, Weems is the protagonist in a story that unfurls through images and text about a woman and her relationships with friends, her child, her lover, and her sense of self. The setting for each carefully staged photograph is a simple wooden kitchen table under a hanging light fixture that can suggest revelation or interrogation, depending on the nature of the scene. Each image is captured from the same perspective, at the far end of the table, so that the viewer occupies a voyeuristic, even participatory role in the domestic drama.
The series, which includes twenty photographs and fourteen text panels, is represented in Diaries of Home in three images that feature the artist as the sole figure around the kitchen table. The works shown here, from the Modern’s collection, are among the last in the narrative sequence: they depict the woman, who is now alone. The room that situates the kitchen table scenes subtly changes from image to image, in parallel with the inner life of the woman. The birdcage in the background of the final photograph could signify a domesticated replacement for the woman’s lover or an empty nest. The many and simultaneous roles Weems embodies in these photographs—matriarch, mother, friend, caretaker, partner, self-soother, a self-reliant, complex sexual and emotional being—defy the monolithic portrayals of Black female experiences that have proliferated in the media. In this powerful, groundbreaking series, the artist gathers important issues of race, gender, class, community, and politics around the table for all of us to contemplate.
Image:
Carrie Mae Weems (American, born 1953)
Untitled (Woman standing), 1990
Gelatin silver print with text panels
Unframed: 27 1/4 × 27 in. (69.22 × 68.58 cm)
Framed: 28 1/16 × 28 1/16 × 1 1/2 in. (71.28 × 71.28 × 3.81 cm)
Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase made possible by a grant from The Burnett Foundation
© Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Diaries of Home
November 17, 2024 - February 2, 2025
Diaries of Home features works by women and nonbinary artists, who explore the multilayered concepts of family, community, and home.
These artists challenge documentary photography by pushing it into conceptual, performative, and theatrical realms. They probe preconceptions about domestic, familial, and communal spaces in the United States, which are often considered feminine spheres. Such environments and their relationship to feminism and feminist art have a history dating back to the 1970s—especially in photography, where women artists have been among the strongest voices. The photographers presented in Diaries of Home show us the dynamics of both biological and constructed families; for example, Sally Mann takes up her three children as subject matter in lush portraits that are intimate and compelling, while Nan Goldin portrays her lover and group of friends as a kind of chosen family. Each artist offers visual narratives ranging from the very personal to broader examinations of society in works that depict tales of love, desire, loss, home, and the intricacies of human relationships.
The artists in Diaries of Home use the vernacular of documentary photography, which creates an immediate sense of familiarity and understanding. Yet, the works subvert the implied truthfulness of the imagery by exploring the medium’s inherent subjectivity through enticing fiction and drama, or by magnifying everyday affairs. The affection, kinship, hardship, and deeply intimate narratives captured lend a diaristic quality to the photographs, creating a conceptual focal point that inspired the exhibition’s title.
Diaries of Home features a diverse, multi-generational group of artists with a variety of photographic processes, ranging from printed images to slides and video. Patty Chang, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Nan Goldin, Debbie Grossman, Letitia Huckaby, Deana Lawson, Laura Letinsky, Sally Mann, Arlene Mejorado, Catherine Opie, Laurie Simmons, and Carrie Mae Weems use themselves and others as center points to explore various social relations in and outside of the home. The resulting imagery that gives shape to Diaries of Home captures the psychological interiority, the complex family dynamics, and the inconsequential and profound moments of daily routine—all aspects that compose a life’s journey.
The exhibition is co-curated by Chief Curator Andrea Karnes and Assistant Curator Clare Milliken.
