Perhaps the most intriguing exhibit at the Hood Museum this term is the work of contemporary photographer Carrie Mae Weems, which opened Saturday in conjunction with Black History Month.
Weems' photographs examine aspects of African American experience by combining powerful imagery with written texts that develop narratives or make statements. She approaches her subjects in the traditions of documentary photography, which reclaims African American history from the racist perceptions generated by white documentary photographers. The work in the Hood's new show is is quite complex and represents one series that has been called Weems' masterpiece to date, "Untitled (Kitchen Table Series)," made in 1990.
"Kitchen Table Series" develops a narrative about one woman's struggles with her emotional life and her relationships with her lover, child and friends. Since Weems is both the photographer and the subject of these, we identify with her on two levels.
"Weems takes control of her own space, refusing to be the compliant object of the gaze," Andrea Kirsh wrote of the "Kitchen Table Series."
The other series that comprise the exhibit are equally compelling. "Colored People" (1990) examines, through hand-dyed triptychs and single large-format photographs, the range of skin color that the word "black" often obscures but contains within itself.
These photographs, titled "Honey Colored Boy," "Low Brown Boy" and "Golden Yella Girl" parody the criminal photography of mug shots while simultaneously celebrating the diversity within the African American community.
"Untitled (Sea Island Series)" from 1992 documents the folklore of the Gullah people of the Georgia-South Carolina Sea Islands in a magnificent display of photographs, text and ceramic plates inscribed with poems. Occasionally the text upstages the images in its rich evocation of customs still practiced today. "If your palm itches you gonna get some money/ If your nose itches somebody's coming to visit," reads one of the panels.
The plates have simple African designs and are inscribed with great short verses such as "Went Looking For Africa/found it in/gumbo, Sonny Boy's blues,/buttermilk/crackling bread."
The breadth of Weems' work is astonishing, and the only possible criticism of the exhibit is that it is not large enough. The works are on loan from the PPOW Gallery in New York and fill three galleries.
"Carrie Mae Weems" is on display at the Hood until Apr. 24, but the museum will be closed for routine maintenance from Mar. 14 to Mar. 28.
