Black and Wright : The Personal and the Political Sides of Carrie Mae Weems Find Forums at UCI

As private as a moment alone with a drink and regret; as political as a hammer and sickle. Two tandem exhibits at UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery allow photographer Carrie Mae Weems to cut a gaping swath between the personal and the public.

Weems, who has graduate degrees in art and folklore, focuses primarily on African-American life, culture and history, combining photography and text. Now living in Oakland, she’s on leave from her post as assistant professor of film and photography at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.

At UC Irvine, “Untitled Series, 1990” explores a single woman’s relationships with men, other women and children. “And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People” addresses the fight for democracy and freedom that’s been waged through time and by the oppressed worldwide.

Though not autobiographical, the large, black and white, staged photographs in the first exhibit depict Weems interacting with a young girl, girlfriends, lovers or boyfriends and alone. Camaraderie, dominance, affection, distrust, anguish and solitude are displayed around a kitchen table.

“It’s really about women, what goes on in the lives of women,” said Weems, who is pictured in one shot playing cards with her lover. The photograph is meant to portray a woman in command, with the upper hand, so to speak: The man’s playing hand is exposed to viewers, a symbol of his vulnerability, while hers is well hidden.

“I always think in black relationships, the black man has met his match,” said Weems, 38, who was included in group exhibits at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art this year.

In another scenario, a young girl is relegated to the position of weakness, standing in a shadow behind her mother.

“Power struggles, that’s what relationships are really about,” the artist said.

Weems has written a narrative, placed on panels next to the photographs, but it is intended to “go against the tenor” of the works, not explain or support them, she said. For instance, while themes of feminism and independence dominate visually, one bit of text offers old-fashioned advice:

“Ya got a good man, man puts up with mo a yo mess than the law allows. . . . Ya best take yo behind home, drop them guns on the floor and work it out.”

The idea for Weems’ other exhibit sprung from a book by black author Richard Wright, who wrote about blacks’ migration from the South in the 1950s, and “the tremendous social revolution of all these people disrupting their lives and demanding a new level of democracy,” she said.

“What happens when you can’t take it anymore, socially or governmentally. People usually rebel on some massive level. I’m interested in that.”

Large color photographs depict symbols of political rebellion, class struggle or tools of social change, from a hammer and sickle to a typewriter. From the ceiling are hung red and white banners printed with quotes by writers, philosophers and others, from Malcolm X to Frederick Engels to Fannie Lou Hamer, a black sharecropper who wrote of the need for a united effort:

“. . . . if the white folk fight for thyself, and the Black folk fight for thyself, we gonna crumble apart. . . . There’s white folk that suffer, there’s Indian people that suffer, there’s Mexican American people that suffer, there’s Chinese people that suffer. . . . We gonna have to fight these battles together.”

What: Works by Carrie Mae Weems in “Untitled Series, 1990” and “And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People.”

When: Through Nov. 7. Hours: Noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

Where: UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery, UC Irvine.

Whereabouts: Take Jamboree Road to Campus Drive, go East on Campus to Bridge Road, right on Bridge. University Gallery is in the university’s Fine Arts complex, near the corner of Bridge and Mesa roads.

Wherewithal: Admission is free.

Where to call: (714) 856-6610.