Clothbound, 6.5 x 9.25 inches, 224 pages, 100 color illustrations

Carrie Mae Weems has often confronted the uncomfortable truths of racism and race relations over the course of her nearly forty-year career. In The Shape of Things, she focuses her unflinching gaze at what she describes as the circuslike quality of contemporary American political life. For this new work, Weems created a seven-part film projected onto a Cyclorama—a panoramic-style cylindrical screen that dates to the 19th century—where she addresses the turmoil of current events in the United States and the “long march forward.”  Drawing upon news and television footage from the Civil Rights era to the present day, elements of some of her previous films such as The Madding Crowd (2017), in which intellectuals such as James Baldwin discuss contemporary politics, and new film projects that bring us into our tumultuous present, the films in The Shape of Things combine documentary directness with poetic rhythm to create an enveloping experience. The films are narrated by Weems, and the layering of her resonant voice with these densely woven images articulate the dangerous and mounting resistance to the “browning of America.” Former President Donald J. Trump is the implicit grand master of the American circus, with its associated tea parties, alt-right parades, and big lie assaults, all working furiously to combat the fundamental shifts in power that loom. But as Weems shows in these powerful works, America is irreversibly changed and changing. It can’t and won’t go back.

About the Author

Carrie Mae Weems 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.