Carrie Mae Weems on hope, her work at Brown University & the future of the art world for Black artists.
In collaboration with students at Brown University Brown Arts Institute (BAI), artist Carrie Mae Weems launched a multi-part project titled “Varying Shades of Brown.”
The project ran September 18 through December 3. Weems, the inaugural Agnes Gund Professor of the Practice of Art and Social Justice along with BAI Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffmanand “Artist@Work” students curated five exhibits on the Brown campus that asked the audience to reconsider America’s and Brown University’s past violent treatment of African Americans. Exhibits provoke meaningful conversations during a time when democracy is under threat in America.
The exhibits titled Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me—A Story in Five Parts (2012); The Usual Suspects (2016), Land of Broken Dreams: A Case Study (2021), Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts (2021), and Seat or Stand and Speak (2021) reimagine Weems’ work on a college campus. The exhibits mix work made by Weems with archival materials found and researched by students.
In addition to the exhibits, Weems curated a conveying that took place on Brown’s campus on November 10-11 for Black community members and tastemakers in which artists such as Lonnie Graham, Stanford Biggers, Zehra Zehra, and LeRonn Brooks spoke about their previous works that created powerful community and conservations among attendees. The program also included a keynote talk between writer and producer Lena Waithe and Weems. The conveying gave artists an opportunity to meet and discuss how they are changing the world through their art.
Interview with Carrie Mae Weems.
“Even though we are sort of at the sort of moment where there's a flurry of activity going on around black and brown and women artists. It's only a drop in the bucket. Its only a tiny splash. Tiny little splash over there in the corner. Right. And it might only have been for a couple of years. Maybe only been a couple of months. You know what I'm saying? The possibility of slipping back as of not really thinking about this work in the most serious way is real and dangerous. Because then it really undermines democracy and it undermines the field. It undermines what we're actually able and capable of doing and if we take nothing else but that simply that idea, which is there is really great work to be mined within culture that would be enough.”
- Carrie Mae Weems on the Varying Shades of Brown Conveying
Interview with students on working with Carrie Mae Weems and Avery Hoffman Williams to create Varying Shades of Brown.
“ You hope that you might be able to do just a little bit better than you did yesterday. That you hope that you will. Whether you're writing, or dancing, or acting, or just living your lives. I hope that I can do just a little bit better. I hope that I can change that thing that so annoys me, that so bothers me, that so troubles me. That keeps me up, that gets me up in the middle of the night. It is that hope, the spirit of possibility. What the possibilities are that are unfolding before our very eyes, right? That's exciting. I'm not really so much worried about joy. But I am worried about change and how I can participate in that.”
- Carrie Mae Weems on Hope