Brown Arts
Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts | Seat or Stand and Speak
Carrie Mae Weems: Varying Shades of Brown
November 9-December 3, 2023
Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts | Seat or Stand and Speak
Carrie Mae Weems: Varying Shades of Brown
November 9-December 3, 2023
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Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021. Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with film support from Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. Video installation. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
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Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021. Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with film support from Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. Video installation. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
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Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021. Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with film support from Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. Video installation. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
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Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021. Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with film support from Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. Video installation. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
About Cyclorama
This spectacular, cylindrical installation acts as a collage of Weems’ visual archive over the previous decade, editing together newly shot and found footage from moments of protest, action, and resistance to white supremacy as well as lingering, loving imagery that evokes Black joy. Weems’ power as an orator is highlighted in the narration, which anchors the many chapters of this forty-minute-long video work.
Amidst the political landscape of the Trump presidency and the uprisings of 2020, Weems converted her unease into an extended meditation on anti-Black violence and Black resilience across time and space. The beauty of the human face, the human body, and their movement on high-definition film is presented through a lens of Blackness that both celebrates and mourns the current state of “things.” As in her entire body of work created through the decades, Weems’ The Shape of Things (2021) offers a critique-in-the-round made more potent by moments of intense and overwhelming visual pleasure.
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Seat or Stand and Speak, 2021. Ten megaphones, chairs, and boxes. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
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Seat or Stand and Speak, 2021. Ten megaphones, chairs, and boxes. ©Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation view at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, 2023. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
About Seat or Stand and Speak
Spanning the Attanasio Family Promenade in The Lindemann, Weems’ Seat or Stand and Speak (2021) is a simple construction of modest materials: unpainted plywood in the shape of a chair and box on which one can be seated (and, within the implication, silent) or where one can activate a megaphone. Seat or Stand and Speak provides space for contemplation and encourages action from viewers, a provocation from Weems to engage directly with the themes of her project.
Exhibition Details
Date:
November 9 - December 3
Location:
The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
144 Angell St, Providence, RI
Hours:
Daily: 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Thursdays: 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
*Recommended last entry is 45 minutes before closing.
Ticket proceeds from Brown Arts Institute programming support artistic productions created by the various artistic communities on Brown’s campus and in Providence.