Kitchen Table Series Hardcover English by Carrie Mae Weems - 26 April 2016

Carrie Mae Weems

Kitchen Table Series is the first publication dedicated solely to this early and important body of work by the American artist Carrie Mae Weems. The 20 photographs and 14 text panels that make up Kitchen Table Series tell a story of one woman's life, as conducted in the intimate setting of her kitchen. The kitchen, one of the primary spaces of domesticity and the traditional domain of women, frames her story, revealing to us her relationships--with lovers, children, friends--and her own sense of self, in her varying projections of strength, vulnerability, aloofness, tenderness and solitude. As Weems describes it, this work of art depicts "the battle around the family ... monogamy ... and between the sexes." Weems herself is the protagonist of the series, though the woman she depicts is an archetype. Kitchen Table Series seeks to reposition and reimagine the possibility of women and the possibility of people of color, and has to do with, in the artist's words, "unrequited love." Carrie Mae Weems (born 1953) is considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists. In a career spanning over 30 years, she has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power. Weems' complex body of art employs photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation and video. Weems has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" grant and the Prix de Roma. She is represented in public and private collections around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

8862084625

English

DAMIANI

26 April 2016

86

Sarah Lewis

...this is (surprisingly) the first book-length rendering of Weems' seminal 1990 domestic study. The brevity of the project--20 images and 14 text panels--gives it room to breathe here, adding intensity to the stark self-portraits and mini-dramas and the startlingly frank prose.--Jack Crager "American Photo " Long before the age of the selfie, Weems embarked on an unprecedented exploration of interiority. Very often her own subject, Weems produced work that is raw and personal and in many ways informs how we understand self-imaging even now.--Kimberly Drew "Lenny " Selected for Vogue's Best Photo Books of Spring 2016--Suzanne Shaheen "Vogue " [Weems's] Kitchen Table Series... [is] enduring, making its way into plenty of books and museums over the years. It's now finally getting a stand-alone copy.--Stephanie Eckardt "W Magazine " So elegant and understated. The photos get to do the heavy lifting, but the design is gorgeous. (50 Covers of 2016)--Gail Anderson "AIGA Design Archives " This exquisitely produced monograph presents the series by itself for the first time.--Andrea Kirsh "Artblog " "Carrie Mae's photographs and videos take women as their central subjects and delve into their interiors, drawing out experiences of friendship, motherhood, memory and race in order to make visible the near invisibility and lack of understanding and documentation of the domestic lives of women, in particular women of color."--Laurie Simmons "The art of Carrie Mae Weems is as subtle and sublimely elegant as it is uncompromisingly political... she is among the most radically innovative artists working today."--Zoe Lescaze "New York Times " Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series renders a page-by-page account of a woman's life within the intimate setting of her kitchen--a stage for female individuality, intricacy and strength.--Issue Magazine In book form, Kitchen Table is more intimate... Unlike the experience of meandering through a museum, stepping back to appreciate the images and nearing the text panels to skim them, the pace of exploration is now in a person's hands. [Weems] and Matsumoto spread out the series--and essays by the scholars Sarah Lewis and Adrienne Edwards--over 86 pages, supplying ample space to absorb it. Weems remarks, of Kitchen Table in particular, 'It has clearly touched the lives of a great many people. It touches a chord and speaks to something that's fairly universal.' And, something that's continuously fresh.--Hilary Moss "T: The New York Times Style Magazine " Honest and raw, The Kitchen Table Series illustrates how we are all learning--from ourselves and each other--in our journey through this thing called life.--Liana DeMasi "Musee Magazine "