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66 I. RT ON MY MI N I)

Traditionally trained in mainst ream art schools where there was lin le orno awareness of rhe WolY in which the politics of white supremacy shapedand informed academic pedagogicsof photographic pract ice, Weems madea conscious decision to work wirh black subiecrs. This choicepreceded contt'mporary academic focus on decenredng \'('estern civilization, which necessa rily requi res that anennon shift from a cent ral concern with whitt'subjeces. Ironically,for the mosr parr, culruml criticism that calls for arrs ofinrervenrion that would decemer rhe \'Vest rend to reprivitege whiteness byinvesting in a polit ics of representation thar merely subst itutes rhe cent ralimage of colonizing oppressive whiteness with that of a nell/I)' reclaimedradical whiteness port rayed as fibernrory. \'('h iteness then remains thestart ing po int for all progressive cultu ral journeying- that movementacross borderswhich invites the world to take note, to pay attention, ro givecritical affirmation. The much ralked-abour d iscourseof pcstcolonialiry is acrit ical lcca tion that , ironically, often maint ains white cultural hegemony.The less well-recognized d iscursive pract ices of anticoloniali sm, on theother hand , decenrer, interrogate, and di splace whiteness. This d iscoursedisrupts accepted epistemologies to make room for an inclusive understand ing of radical sub jecriviry rhar allows recognit ion and apprecia t ion ofthe myriad ways individuals from oppressedor marginalized 8rouPS createopposi tional cultu ral srraeegtes that can be meaningfully dep loyed byeveryone. This consrrucnve culrural appropriation happens onlyas shifts insrendpoine rake place, when there is ongoing trnnsformarion of ways of seeins that sustain oppositional spheres of representation.

The work of Carrie Mae Weems visually eos ages a pol itics of ant icolonialism.Cc ncrerely decenrering the white subject. she challenges viewersco shift their paradigms. Although her work encourages us nor to see theblack subject through the totalizing lens of race, it is often di scussed asthough the sign of racial d ifference is the only relevant visual experienceher images evoke. This way of seeing scrively reuppropria res the workand reinscr ibes it with in the domin ant cultu ral hegemony of Westernimper ialism and colon ialism. By choos ing to concentrate atten tion onblack sub jects. Weems risks t his oversimplificat ion of her art isti c p ractice. In her work, however, she constsrend y invites us 10 engage the blacksub ject in ways that call attent ion to the spec ificity of race even as weengage all emot iona l landscape that challenges us to look beyond raceand recogn ize the multiple concerns represented . Unfortunatel y. the fail-

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OI ASPO R IC LAN DSC AP [ S LO NG IN G 6

ure to move beyond a conventional pract ice of art cr it icism that consistenrl} confines b lack artists with in a d iscourse th at is always and onlyabout racial ot herness characterizes much crit ical writ ing about \'qt tms's\lo'ork , Transform ing ways of seeing means rhar we learn to see race thereby no longer act ing in complicity whh a wh ite-su premacist aes rheric that would have us believe issues of color and race have no place inartist ic pract ices- without privileging it as the only relevant category ofanalysis. Carrie Mae Weems's phcroworks create a cartog raphy ofexperience wherein race. gender, and class ident ity converge, fuse, and mix SO asto d isnl pt and deconsuncr simple not ions of subject ivity.

While Weems's decision to concent rate on black subjects was a challenge (0 wh ite cu ltural hegemony, it s igna led. more imponand y. th eemergence of a lifelon g commitment to recover and bring to the foreground subj ugated knowledge relating [0 African-Amer ican expe rience.Although W e t'ffiS was initi ally captivated by mainstream documentarypboeography, learning from the work of photographers from HenriCarti er-Bresso n to Roy DeCarava. she crit ica lly engages a p rocess ofimage making that fuses d iverse cradieions and engages mixed med ia,Early in her art istic developrnene, she was part icularly inspired by DeCarave's visual repre sentations of black subjects that invert rhe domi nantcuhure's aes thetics, in which, informed by recisr thin king . blackness wasiconograph ically seen as II marker of ug liness, DeCarava endeavored torefrerne th e black image with in a subv ersive politi cs of representat ionthat cha llenged the log ic of f3cist colonizat ion and dehumani zat ion.Moving among and with in the pu bl ic and p rivate worlds of poo r andworking -c lass black experience . wh ich mainstream wh it e cu lture perceived only as a locat ion of deprivati on and spiritual and emotional "ughness." Dt-Carava crea ted images of b lack fol ks embodying a spi ri t ofabundance and plenty: he claimed blackness as the aes thet ic space o fethereal bea ury, of persistent , unsuppressed elegance and g race,

Such work fits most nearly into the catego ry that the crit icSaidiya Hart man identi fied as arti stic practice aimed at "rescuing and recovering theblack subject" via a "crit icallabor of rhe positi ve. It is a resolutely counterhegemonic labor that has at its aim tilt:es tablishment ofceher srandards ofaesthetic value and visual possibiliry. The intention of the work is correcnve represen rarien ." Weems extended DeCarav;a 's legacy beyond theinvestment in creat ing posit ive images , Her images problemat izing black

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....6& A RT ON MY M I N D

subjecriviry expend the visual d iscursive field. Weems's journey, beg inningwith thi s "cricicallabor of the positive," is fundamental ly altered and rengured as her relation to the black image is transformed by a politics of dislocation. In her early work. Wt'ems's percep t ion of black subjecnv ieydeparted from a concern with the positive and refigured itself within a fieldofconcesranon. wherein identity is always Huid. always changing.

Weems is engaged in a process of border crossing, of living within asoc ial context of cul tural hybridit y. Her understand ing ofblack sub jectivi ty is informed by what Paul Gi lroy identified as "the powerful effectsof even tempora ry expe riences of exile, relocat ion. and d isplacemen t."Indeed , it is rhe effon to recover subjugated knowledge wit hin the realmof visual representat ion that brings Weems face co face wit h the hm iranonsof esscnna liscconsrruct ions of black ident ity.

Contrary co cri t ical discussion that sees \Veems as laying claim to an"authent ic" black experience. her explorative journeys of recoveryand rerummerely expose how reality is d isroned when a unitary representation ofblacksubject ivity is retoscrtbed rather chancoraiscenely challenged. When Weemsmade the decision to focus on black subjecrs-c-as she put it . to "d ig in myown backyard-c- she was motivated by a longing to restore knowledge. notb y a desire to uphold an essentialist politics of representation. (A distinct ionmus t be made here between the critical project that seeks to promote a not ionofauthent ic blackness and efforts to e l a i m the past tha t are ages ture ofcri tical resisrence and rernembrance.) W hile Wttms drew on her family historyin the series Famil)'Piaures IIl1d StoritJ.her narrative deflects any one-d imensional const ruct ion of these works as "posit ive" images dep loyed rc challengeracist stereotypes .She nor only named her location as that of theoutsider whohas journeyed away from family and community of origin to retu rn with newperspectives. she juxtaposed and cont rasted her memories of people with thepresent reality. Balancing image making that commemorates the past withthe act of highlIghting rhe ways in which the meaning of this past is changedby interrogations in the present, Weemscelebrated what Roger Simon called"processe s of collect ive remembrance." He explained: "Cent ral to theseprocesses is a procedure with in which images and stories of a shared past arewoven together with a person (or g roup's) feelings and comp rehension oftheir embod ied presence in time and space. These processesof remembrancearc orgsniaed and produced within pract icesofcommernomrion which iniriate and structu re the relat ion berween a represenrauon of past events and that

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OI./lSPORlC.. L...t-.I)S( 1\ PI'S O f LONGINO 69

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~ ( ART O/'< MY Mll'; ' l)

New World . Tbere she looked ac African-American ideas arhomt'. community, and nation, parti cularly asexpressed in vernacular, working-classcu lrure. Visually revisiting slavery, the Middle Passage. Reconst ruct ion.tht civil righ ts era, and on ( 0 mifiranr black power act ivism, Wt tms hascreated images that chan the passion of rebell ion and resistance. Com memorar ive plates rem ind us of the nature of that journey. Simon calledthis process "insurgent commemoration" that "arrernprs to consrrucr andengage represenradcns th at rub rakeo -for-g raneed h istory against thegra in so as ro reviralize and rea roculaee what one sees as desirable andnecess.u y for an open, just and life-sustain ing future." In rhe series Ai,,',Jolein. Weems used wit and satire to exorcise the power of racist repre senration. Referencing ractse iconograph y, as well as h ighl ight ing folkloreused ro pe rpe tu ate white supremacy in everyday life, rhar mak es th isiconog raphy appear matter of face,whil e ccocrasriog the se images wit hnarrarive sra remenrs thai prcolemariee , decons rrucred these vnysof know ing . Throughout her work , she has relied on srrceegies ofdeconstruct ion to challenge conventional pe rcepnoos created by our arrachmem 10 fixed ~ y of looking that lead to blindspoes.

In rbe insrallar ion and 22 MilliONVt r,)' Tired and VeryA ngry Ptoplt,~ creaeed an assemblage of carefu lly chosen poli tical narrarivesc-

the declarative confessions of working-class activists, the lyrical ofthe 1lQ \'e1 iSt-and placed them with spec ific images. No fixed. authent icblack subject is represented in this piece. "The common bond is not race orshared history bu r, rather. an emoeicnal uni verse inhabited by individ ualscommitt ed rc ending dominat ion, oppression. and injustice around rheworld ; who art linked toge ther across the boundaries of space, time. race,cult ure, nationality, and even li fe and deat h. by a shared commitment tost ruggle. As th is installat ion makes clear. rage againSt injusti ce. as well asthe weariness that comes wirh prorraceed st ruggle . is nor the excl usiveproperty of black people. As the image of che g lobe suggescs. it is presentwherever oppression and exploirarion prevail in daily life.

In th is insta llation, Weems laid claim to a diasporic vision of jou rneying in search of freedom and st rateg ies of resistance and fulfillment . Sheh:1S staked her claim by inhabiting the space of blackness in the UnitedSta tes. bUI also by refusing ro sta y in her place and reject ing a narrowident ity politics imposed by systems ofdomi nation . The radi cal b lacksubjectivity mi rrored in this installation audac iously unites that parricu-

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OI ASPQ a l C l A1\!l) l . A P \ 0 11,01'>

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Ceme IlInt WMft,J. Sea Island Sms. 1992. Sih," print. EdlltlJ"D/ 10. 20"x20. " C()JIrttJy9/P. P.O. \v. Galltr). Photographsby Adam Rruh.acknowledged to be ways of knowing that enhance our experience of life.tha t sweeten the journey. When Weems looks to Africa, I t IS to rediscoverand remember an undocumen ted past even as she airnulraneoualy c reates arelat ionship forged m rhe ccncreredailiness of the present. For example. in

r lIland series . cepnvny IS evoked by the depiction of spaces tha tCOflVe)' a spi rit ofcon rammeer. A cultu ral genealogy of loss and abaodonmenr is recorded in the words Wrtms stacked on top of one another:"Congo. Ibo. Mend.ego. Togo.R These markers of herit age. legacy, andlocation In history nand in drrecr COntrast 10 rbose words that evoke d istocation, displacement, dismemberment: "Grabb ing . Snaect nng, Bhn k, AndYou Be Gone. R \Vhereas the ~ s l t J n d J series ma rks the met-ring g roundbe tween Africa and America, the Gork hland imagesarticulate II decolonized polit ics or resistance. Theyrepresenra retu rn that coumers the lossofthe Midd le Passage. the rec overy lhal i made possible because or revolution and resrsraoce. chrcugh ongcmg anticolon ial sn ugg le. Wt tms is notattempti ng ro creare an et hnographiCcartography to document dlasporicblack connect ions. Her workdoes not" record a JOUrney to uneart h essen-

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DIA SPOR IC LANDSCAPES o r LO :-.G ING ' \(Ial. aut hent ic black roots .even though it willl ikdy be crit ical I)' discussedand arranged by curators in a manner th at makes t his sppropnanve reinscription poss ible. Weems is most concerned wit h ways such knowledgeremakes and t ransforms contempora ry radical black subject ivity. A spi ri tofCD lU eSfat ion tha t emerges with ehe Wml1..JJol!mgjorAfrica series exposesthe way Western im perial ism informs the relationship ofAfrican-Americans to Africa. Yet t he fuilure to embrace a progressive. ant icolonial sta ndpoim as the perspect ive that rnighr enable everyone in the \Vleu , includingblack folks, to see Africa di fferently in no way delegi rimizes the long ing torerum [0 Africa as origin sit e. as locanoo of poss ible spiritual renewal. TheAfrica Weems visua lly represen ted in the Corle Island series is both a si tefor msurgern co rnrnemorarive remembrance and a contemporary locationchat must be engaged on its own rerrns, in the present .

weems has cem raliaed a rchirecrural images, link ing rradirionald .....elli ngs with modern space. In t he se images, Africa is borh familiar

I a n d and locanoo ctOrberress. Fundamen cally, it is a place that awakens t he senses, enabling us to move inrc a futu re empowered by the prevIously subjuga ted knowledge thai we cannoc allow reason ro overdcrerrnioecors rruceions ctideneiry and community. As Bernard Tsch umidec lared, wehnvenn expe rience of space rime is reg istered in [he senses, in a worldbeyond words: "Space is real for it seems 10 affect my senses long before myreason. The materiality of my body both coincides with and strugg les wirhthe materiality ofspace. My body carries in irselfspat ial propernes. and spana ldeeermi narions. . . . Unfolding aga inst the projections of reason, aga instrhe Absolute Truth , agai nst t he Pyramid , here is rhe Sensory Space , theLebynnr h, the Hole . . . he re is where my body tr ies 10 rediscover in lostumry, ItS energies and impulse s , it'S rhythms and its flux .- \'(ft tm s seekssuch reunion in her imaginarive engsgernem and remembrance ofAfrica past and present . Her visual quest to recover subjugated knowledge is fulfilled in a proce ss of journeying that , as Mary Catherin e Batesonproclaimed. makes learning a process by which we come horne: "the processof learning turns a st range context into a fami lia r one, and finalI)' inro ahabne rtonof mind and heart . . . . Learning to know a commu nity or a landscape is a homecom ing. Creat ing a vision of [hat communicyor landscape isbomema kiog." !n her art practice, Wt tms imag ires adiasporic landscape of1000g ing , a cartography of desire wherein boundaries are marked only to berraesg ressed , where t he exile retu rns home only ( 0 leave again,