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 05/28/2008
SCAD presents European premiere of new film by renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems
 LACOSTE, France - American artist Carrie Mae Weems explores the human rights movement in an upcoming multimedia installation at the Savannah College of Art and Design-Lacoste. The exhibition will be on display July 9-Aug. 28 at Galerie Pfriem, Rue du Four, with a vernissage July 9.
In a Feb. 29 New York Times review, art critic Roberta Smith wrote of Weems, "No American photographer of the last quarter-century … has turned out a more probing, varied and moving body of work. None has made more adventurous use of the photographic medium, adding performance, film and installation to the serial print format."
In Winter 2008, Weems taught an innovative special topics course at SCAD-Atlanta as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member. She and her students conceptualized, planned and created the commissioned "Constructing History" film and a related series of photographs. Inspired by the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Constructing History" explores the human rights movement, both in the United States and abroad.
Drawing on archival films, Weems worked with SCAD students and other volunteers to re-enact significant historical moments. Students created props and costumes, designed sets, coordinated production, and acted in vignettes, which were captured on film and serve as the basis for the installation.
Ashley C. Vieira, a SCAD photography student, said, "The Carrie Mae Weems project … has not only given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people within the art community, but it has inspired me to make more art."
Weems has said, "Through the act of performance, with our own bodies, we are allowed to experience and to connect the historical past to the present-to the now, to the moment. By inhabiting the moment, we live the experience; we stand in the shoes of others and come to know first hand what is often only imagined, lost, forgotten."
The civil rights movement in the United States helped spawn global concern for human rights. Race and gender issues continue to resonate in the American political arena as, for the first time, a woman and a black man vie for the Democratic nomination for President. The international spotlight on their campaigns, as well as ongoing human rights violations throughout the world, makes Weems' installation particularly timely.
Weems, who recently received a Skowhegan Medal for photography, earned a Bachelor of Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego. She studied folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, with the late Alan Dundes, and has been an artist in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Fabric Workshop and the Rhode Island School of Design. Weems' work is included 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 Williams College Museum of Art. She lives and works in New York. "Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment" was made possible by the Savannah College of Art and Design with the National Black Arts Festival.
About SCAD
Named one of Kaplan's "25 cutting-edge schools with an eye toward the future," the Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution with locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., and in Lacoste, France. Undergraduate and graduate degree programs also are offered online through SCAD-eLearning. The college offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts and Master of Urban Design degrees. admission, call 800.869.7223 or 912.525.5100 in Savannah, or call 877.722.3285 or 404.253.2700 in Atlanta.
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