ALUMNI HONORS
THE ARTIST : Carrie Mae Weems makes her life her work in words and pictures .
Photographs may have made her name , but the art of Carrie Mae Weems , MFA ’ 84 , is as complex and multifaceted as the artist herself . Weems is best known for capturing profound moments in the lives of African-Americans and turning the lens on herself to speak volumes about us all . Yet her body of artistic work also threads into community activism to stop gun violence and advocacy programs for youth to get involved in the creative arts . Venturing into another form of expression , Weems says about her latest project , Grace Notes —“ it ’ s my first major performance piece and it allows for working in a very rich and full way with other artists : with composers , with musicians , dancers , writers , poets , choreographers . It ’ s very exciting .” And with dates set for the Kennedy Center among other venues , Weems ’ vision of the world and what needs to be said about our lives will reach new heights .
On choosing UC San Diego : “ Well , frankly , UCSD chose me . And it was really quite wonderful . I had just graduated from Cal Arts and moved into a studio . I was quietly working , trying to figure out my way forward when one afternoon , I received a
knock on my door and it was professor Ulysses Jenkins asking me , ‘ Have you ever thought about graduate school ?’ I said , ‘ Graduate school ? I just finished school .’ I was taken aback ! But I came to the school , I met a whole group of amazing people , and absolutely , in every way , my experience at UCSD changed my life . It gave me a new perspective , a new understanding of possibilities with education , what the structure of education is , and how to move through that structure . And of course , at that moment , the people that were teaching at the university , particularly in the arts , were just some of the most important people working in contemporary art . From Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison , to David and Eleanor Anson , Fred Lonidier , Phil Steinmich , Allan Kaprow — I had an amazing opportunity to work with them .”
On the UC San Diego education : “ It ’ s where one asks the tougher questions , the difficult questions about a practice , and where one learns how to engage those questions — not necessarily how to answer them but how to engage them . Questions that are deeply important to the nature and process of your work , how to push through them so you can actually have a life , so you can build and design this life vis-à-vis the practice you ’ re engaged in . So without UCSD — without that mentorship , that guidance , that fellowship , without having some of my peers who remain my peers and colleagues — I wouldn ’ t be the artist that I am today . UCSD was very important in really shaping and defining who I would become , as a person and an artist .”
On her first exhibition of Family Pictures and Stories , at the Multicultural Gallery on campus : “ One of the important things about my education at UCSD was that my instructors were so deeply involved as forerunners in contemporary artistic practices — so ideas about using image and text , using language as the source and foundation of your creative practice were important . That had not really been stressed to me before . So the idea of what an artwork was , what it could be , expanded for me and allowed me to work in a new way .”
Join us June 9 at MOCA San Diego for a night of art , and see more of Weems ’ work at tritonmag . com / weems
49 TRITON | SPRING 2017