Carrie Mae Weems
Visiting Artist
Presented by Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design as part of their annual Russell Family lecture series and in collaboration with the Notre Dame Arts Initiative
This lecture by Carrie Mae Weems is a featured event in the Russell Family Lecture Series which is dedicated to showcasing prominent artists, art historians, and designers reflecting on the future of the arts and their place in higher education.
Credits
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems, a conceptual artist, unpacks and confronts constructions of race and femininity in the pursuit of new models to live by. Grounded in the specificity of her lived experience as a Black woman but universal in its explorations of family relationships, cultural identity, power structures and social hierarchy, her artistic practice is primarily photographic but also incorporates text, fabric, audio, installation, and video. Informed by narrative storytelling, folkloric traditions and the observational methodologies of the social sciences, her approach to image-making ranges from staged and serialized narrative to appropriation and adaptation of archival and ethnographic imagery. Weems takes aim at the complicity of the photographic medium in propagating dehumanizing tropes and the historical omission of Black women from fine art institutions and canons.
Weems lives in Syracuse, New York with her husband Jeffrey Hoone.
Notre Dame's Department of Art, Art History, & Design
The Department of Art, Art History & Design (AAHD) is a multidisciplinary department offering undergraduate and graduate programs in studio art, art history, and design. Under the guidance of a talented and diverse faculty, students acquire the technical skills necessary to work creatively, develop the ability to think critically, and cultivate the discipline to reflect thoughtfully on the world and our place in it.
Notre Dame Arts Initiative
Launched in 2024 as a priority of Notre Dame's strategic framework, the Arts Initiative brings together the people and programs of the University’s extended arts community to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and define the arts as central to campus and community life. By transcending conventional boundaries — between art forms and across disciplines — the Initiative mobilizes the transformative power of the arts to advance knowledge, invigorate learning, and foster human solidarity.
Funding & Support
This is a signature program of the Notre Dame Arts Biennial, funded and organized by Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History, & Design as part of their annual Russell Family lecture series and in collaboration with the Arts Initiative.
This Art, Art History, and Design lecture is made possible through the generous support of the Russell Family. It is co-sponsored by Notre Dame's Department of Film,Television, and Theatre, Department of English, Initiative on Race and Resilience, Gender Studies Program, and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Venue staffing support also provided by the Raclin Murphy.
Image
Photo credit: © Rolex, Audoin Desforges