A grand panorama of race and civil unrest in America’s past and present.
Carrie Mae Weems has often confronted the uncomfortable truths of racism and race relations over the course of her nearly 40-year career. In The Shape of Things she focuses her unflinching gaze at what she describes as the circuslike quality of contemporary American political life. For this new work, Weems created a seven-part film projected onto a Cyclorama―a panoramic-style cylindrical screen that dates to the 19th century―where she addresses the turmoil of current events in the United States and the “long march forward.”
Drawing on news and TV footage from the civil rights era to today, elements of previous films such as The Madding Crowd (2017) and new film projects that bring us into our tumultuous present, the films in The Shape of Things combine documentary directness with poetic rhythm to create an enveloping experience. The films are narrated by Weems, and the layering of her resonant voice with these images articulates the dangerous mounting resistance to the “browning of America.” As Weems shows in these powerful works, America is irreversibly changed and changing.
Carrie Mae Weems: The Shape of Things
Selected Books by This Photographer
Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series
2022 - Damiani/Matsumoto Editions
Carrie Weems, Sarah Lewis, Adrienne Edwards
Carrie Mae Weems (October Files)
2021 - The MIT Press
Carrie Mae Weems, Sarah Lewis, Christine Garnier
Carrie Mae Weems: Strategies of Engagement
2018 - Mcmullen Museum Of Art, Boston College
Carrie Mae Weems, Robin Lydenberg, Ash Anderson
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David Ricci: Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture
Mar 2026 - MW Editions
David Ricci
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