Carrie Mae Weems

In this performance for camera, Weems creates a ritual dance through the pillars of Peter Eisenmann’s ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’, completed in Berlin in 2005. Accompanied by the music of American composer Gregory Wanamaker, Weems appears and disappears, her fluid movement punctuated by short, sharp claps.

A short film connecting contemporary state surveillance to histories of Black insurgency.

Afro-Chic explores the construction of identity through the presentation of several women wearing exaggerated Afro hairstyles and sassy attire as they strut down an illuminated runway.

An installation utilizing two adjoining screens mounted in a corner. On the opposing sides, groups of people protest for and against desegregation during the 1965 Boston riots, the looped news footage slowed to match the tempo of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” the only sound.

"A great many conundrums." An assemblage of found footage.

In 2004 Checkerboard had the privilege of filming Carrie Mae Weems discussing her body of work, comprised of 17 projects spanning more than two decades (1981-2004). This dynamic presentation was accompanied by slides of the artist's photographs and excerpts from her video art. The result is a chaptered lecture guided by Weems's seductive voice and passionate presence. The viewer is transported into her world as she details what she is trying to uncover, illuminate, investigate and provoke through her lens.

People of a Darker Hue, 2016 Video, 14 minutes, 58 seconds © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

The film traces how bodies of water, from their sweeping currents to soft tides, have shaped us, enabling transatlantic migration and continuing to impact communities in east London and beyond. The work explores the creation of new identities and artistic forms by the immigrants who have relocated across oceans, both voluntarily and by force.