Carrie
Mae Weems: The Louisiana Project October
9
- December 14
As part of
the bicentennial celebrations surrounding the commemoration of
the Louisiana Purchase, the Newcomb Art Gallery commissioned a
new work by the noted artist Carrie Mae Weems. Weems has a distinguished
career as a photographer interested in history and social critique.
Her work frequently addresses questions of race, class, and gender.
All of those themes are addressed in The Louisiana Project.
This installation incorporates still photography, narrative, and
video projection as part of an examination of the complex history
of New Orleans and the “commingling culture” that
has resulted. Photographs use the symbolism of the mirror as a
means of reflection on a particular region and its history, on
attitudes about blackness, as well sexual identity. In another
group of images Weems places herself in a series of locations,
plantations, railroad tracks, chemical plants etc. as a witness
to the experience of African Americans in Louisiana. The video
in turn considers a triad of relationships between white men,
white women, and women of color played out as a sort of shadow
dance. In this case it is not all clear who holds the power.
While the focus of the installation is directed toward the particular
situation of Louisiana, the implications extend far beyond one
state or one region.
