July 15 – September 2, 2005
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Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled, 2003.
Carrie Mae Weems, I looked and looked and failed to see what so terrified you (diptych), 2003. Chromogenic print.
Carrie Mae Weems, A Single’s Waltz in Time (triptych), 2003. Iris print.
The Louisiana Project, an exhibition of work by the contemporary photographer Carrie Mae Weems, incorporates photography, narrative, and video in order to investigate the social history of the Louisiana Purchase and its lasting cultural implications. Focusing on what she refers to as “the footnotes of history,” Weems treats issues of race, identity, and gender as she challenges and supplements conventional interpretations of the event. Her work centers on New Orleans and the Mardi Gras festival, analyzing how cultural patterns that the Louisiana Purchase established two hundred years ago persist today.
Commissioned by the Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the Purchase, The Louisana Project brings a critical perspective to the complex social and political issues involved in a landmark event.