Carrie Mae Weems Untitled (Playing harmonica), 1990 © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

By Nicholas Rutolo

Carrie Mae Weems brings light to the things we don’t see: the people in the background and the structures of power. For much of time, Black people have been delegated to the background of the historical paintings and pictures that they exist in, and when they are shown, it isn’t to glorify or uplift them. Weems repurposes that art, creates narratives, criticizes architecture and systems of power, and does this all with a purposeful lack of color. Art’s parallel to society is exactly what Weems is fighting against, by recreating art with a different focus and creating a more honest narrative. Witness is an exploration of Weems’ works, focusing on history, identity and the structure of power. The Fraenkel Gallery is showing a collection of her work from Sept. 9 until Nov. 9, 2021, featuring pieces from as far back as the 90s. Selections include Kitchen Table, Diana Portraits, Africa, Museum, Blue Notes, Slow Fade to Black, Constructing History, All the Boys and her video People of a Darker Hue. Weems paints an immaculate image of what it’s like to be Black in America.

Carrie Mae Weems Mahalia, 2010 © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Kitchen Table is a fictional visual depiction of a relationship between friends, lovers and parents. Weems creates a world around herself to explore vulnerability in relationships. A scene of Weems and her lover playing harmonica is meant to be joyful, while in another she’s standing over and supporting her male counterpart as he sits and reads the newspaper, demonstrating the strength she gives to him even when things are painful.

Diana Portraits reclaims agency for women whose portraits were originally used by a zoologist to support his racist theories that Black people were more animal than human. By reframing and repurposing these images, Weems confronts academia’s troubling history and returns dignity to these people.

Carrie Mae Weems Color Real and Imagined, 2014 © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Africa leads into Museum by analyzing the last reminisces of the slave trade and the places of power that enslaved and segregated people of color. It reflects on Stairways to Heaven, a series of three photos of steps and a poem, which was Weems’ first venture into photographing places of power that have historically ostracized Black people from their circles. Museum shows Weems standing in front of museums and monuments that were architecturally designed to leave people out, including the Louvre and multiple American monuments, to show how engraved oppression is in society.

Blue Notes and Slow Fade to Black both criticize society’s tendency to embrace Black culture’s contributions while erasing and neglecting the roots that they came from. Blue Notes uses color in ways that stand apart from Weems’ other work. By placing blocks of solid, vibrant colors onto blurred images of Black pop culture figures, Weems accuses society of stealing from Black culture. By creating grainy images of Mahalia Jackson, Weems illustrates that Black women have been disassociated from their work over time due to racism.

Carrie Mae Weems Wifredo, Laura, and Me, 2002 © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Constructing History looks directly into the eyes of violence and the subsequent mourning of monumental figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. through reenacted scenes that show the truth behind hate. In a similar vein, All the Boys and People of a Darker Hue honor unarmed Black men and women robbed of their lives at the hands of police brutality. All the Boys applies a blue filter over blurred images of Black men simply standing; a simple use of color and a minor distortion of the clarity of the image show the injustice, recklessness and influence of police on Black people in America.

People of a Darker Hue is a powerful 15 minute video, embracing the victims of systemic oppression and police brutality. The video is split into two parts. In the first, people of color come in and out of focus while walking on what can be assumed to be a city’s sidewalk. With very few breaks between shots and prolonged exposure to the same area of focus, it shows that people of color are everywhere. It’s slow but contextual for this world and its population.

Carrie Mae Weems All the Boys (Profile 2), 2016 © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

The second part of the video, Always Stopped, Always Charged is infuriating and painful. Men run on a treadmill, underneath a clock, ahead of a tree and between windows. While these scenes are left to the viewer’s interpretation, Weems created them as a sophisticated metaphor about how Black people rarely make progress in society regardless of how far or how fast they try to leave the past. While slavery is no more, Black men today are subjugated to a world that seeks to profit from their incarceration. A poem, read by Weems, overlays the video, spliced together with crowds of people protesting for justice. Weems’ poem is repetitive but effective, constantly saying “He was 21,” or “She was 35” — the ages of Black men and women who’ve died at the hands of police brutality, racism and oppression. A few minutes later she says their names — “Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile” and so many others — alongside videos of police brutality going as far back as Rodney King in 1991. I hadto pause the video a few times to compose myself. Everything Weems makes is nothing short of beautiful, heartbreaking and exquisite; her work will move anyone that lays eyes on it.

Carrie Mae Weems has presented major shows internationally at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Stanford University. She’s received a MacArthur Fellowship and numerous other awards, and her work is part of permanent exhibitions in New York, Houston, Los Angeles and London.