This focus on a nuanced consideration of history, particularly as its tropes, forms the core of this exhibition as each series appears universal in scope, yet also isolates and draws upon more individual themes and issues. Weems’ still and moving images reveal families, men, women and the individuals that meld with and yield feelings of hope, despair, solitude, pride, strife and optimism. All of these aspects merge to form poignant visual articulations of our human condition in both days past and present. And in these diverse works that often look back, Weems urges us to be reflective and inquisitive — to consider them critically — within our present moment.
“Weems has long been one of our most effective visual and verbal rhetoricians. When she tackles complex subjects in complex ways, the results are...deeply stirring.” — Holland Cotter, The New York Times
A commitment to history, to its exploration and analysis as well as to its revision, has always been ever-present in Weems' practice. She has, over the course of the past three decades, continued to reconsider history through her critical and insightful lens. Through much of her multidisciplinary work, Weems has oriented us to the complex ways in which the past is consistently and without fail carried forward into the present. In so doing, her art critically reflects how history gets constructed, layered, juxtaposed and articulated, and often, what roles we — both individually and collectively — have occupied within it.
Presented as part of deFINE ART 2016, which takes place Tuesday, Feb. 16 through Friday, Feb. 19, 2016.
All deFINE ART lectures, receptions and events are free and open to the public.
