With a New Armory Exhibition Curated by CCS Bard Director Tom Eccles, the World Is Catching Up to Carrie Mae Weems
When and Where I Enter - Ancient Rome, 2006 by Carrie Mae Weems.
Carrie Mae Weems has been creating multimedia art for 40 years. With her new show, The Shape of Things, curated by Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, “the world has caught up to her,” writes Robin Pogrebin in the New York Times. Weems’ work, which critically engages American culture through commentary on race, gender, and class, is now on display at the Park Avenue Armory. Eccles was surprised when he received the call from Weems. “I said to her, ‘Hey, Carrie, I’m white,’” Eccles said. “She said, ‘That doesn’t worry me.’”
For Eccles, Weems’ influence on the world of multimedia art is obvious. “Clearly younger artists today are descendants of Carrie Mae Weems, so it’s a great moment to show a large body of work and to show new work,” said Eccles. It is as though the moment has caught up to Weems’ “relevancy,” which Eccles credits both to the artist and to “a change of a moment when suddenly you realize how relevant that work is.” Weems herself sees the show not as the culmination of a career, but as a next step in her ongoing development. “It is a lifelong struggle and it doesn’t end with the completion of a body of work,” Weems said. “It is a life.”
Post Date: 12-07-2021
For Eccles, Weems’ influence on the world of multimedia art is obvious. “Clearly younger artists today are descendants of Carrie Mae Weems, so it’s a great moment to show a large body of work and to show new work,” said Eccles. It is as though the moment has caught up to Weems’ “relevancy,” which Eccles credits both to the artist and to “a change of a moment when suddenly you realize how relevant that work is.” Weems herself sees the show not as the culmination of a career, but as a next step in her ongoing development. “It is a lifelong struggle and it doesn’t end with the completion of a body of work,” Weems said. “It is a life.”
Post Date: 12-07-2021