Carrie Mae Weems
Resist COVID / Take 6!
December 2020–May 2021
Usdan Gallery collaborates in a regional presentation of Resist COVID / Take 6!, a national public awareness campaign by Carrie Mae Weems. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and widely renowned as one of today’s most influential American artists, Weems conceived the campaign to highlight ways that racial inequities have manifested in the COVID-19 pandemic. PSA messages on signs and merchandise address the impact of the virus on Black, Brown and Native communities while also thanking essential workers and urging safety precautions (“Take 6” refers to social distancing).
Our partners in the Southern Vermont-Western Massachusetts edition of Resist COVID / Take 6! include the Bennington Museum, the Clark, MASS MoCA, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Williams College Museum of Art and the 62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College. Installations and interventions happening in Bennington, North Adams, and Williamstown will include banners, billboards, posters, yard signs and giveaways such as grocery bags.
About Carrie Mae Weems:
Most celebrated as a photographer, Weems (born 1953, Portland, Oregon) has developed a complex body of work over more than four decades employing text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video. Activism is central to her practice, which investigates race, family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frist Center for Visual Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain. Her many awards include the MacArthur Fellowship (2013); Anonymous Was a Woman (2007); Skowhegan Medal for Photography (2007); Rome Prize Fellowship (2006); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in Photography (2002); as well as honorary degrees from Colgate University (2007) and California College of the Arts (2001). Weems lives and works in Syracuse, NY, where she debuted Resist Covid / Take 6! as part of an artist’s residency (2020-23) at Syracuse University.
