Untitled (playing harmonica)

Carrie Mae Weems is both image-maker and storyteller. In her widely acclaimed Kitchen Table series, Weems shares an intimate narrative of domestic rituals and relationships. It is a series in which Weems plays the protagonist. She is a lover, a partner, a mother, a friend, a woman. In each image, she is seen at her lamp-lit kitchen table, often accompanied by a rotating cast of family and friends, and sometimes alone. It is here, in the most gendered space of the home, that we see Weems perform the moments of joy, doubt, desire, disorder, loss and courage that define the human bonds we create throughout a lifetime. In this image, we see Weems in tender reverie, listening to her partner play the harmonica, as the two dine together. A lobster sits untouched on her plate; her glass of wine remains full. He, on the other hand, has finished his meal – and several drinks. Yet she too appears sated. Across the kitchen table, a quiet moment of exchange and pleasure is occurring; they are sustaining each other.

The Kitchen Table series is about being with (and in) oneself as much as it is about being with another. In Untitled (playing harmonica) Weems holds herself with a striking sense of composure and confidence; her face is bathed in bright light. This may appear to be an ordinary woman, but Weems grants her an intensity of spirit that verges on otherworldliness. Herein lies the work’s powerful statement about womanhood. Not only does Weems make visible the experience of women, particularly black women. She also makes this scene from everyday life into a moment of transcendence.