We’ve all been impacted by COVID-19. It’s an ecological health crisis of epic proportion—an international disaster. And yet we have indisputable evidence that people of color have been disproportionately impacted. The death tolls in these communities are staggering. This fact affords the nation an unprecedented opportunity to address the impact of social and economic inequality in real-time. Denial does not solve a problem. —Carrie Mae Weems
For her participation in the Aspen Art Museum’s
Aspen Times Artist Takeover series, acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems will present four works from her new art initiative,
RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! Weems’s project, whose title alludes to recommendations that people stay six feet apart from one another during the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to draw attention to the ways in which the deadly virus has disproportionately impacted people of color, particularly Black, Latino, and Native communities. Printed on posters, billboards, flyers, and other public-facing platforms, Weems’s photo-based campaign seeks to heighten public awareness of the impact of social and economic disparity while also paying homage to the essential workers who have placed themselves in harm’s way during the pandemic.
Representative of her larger
RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! project, Weems’s contribution to the
AAM’s Aspen Times series aims to be impactful in both its immediate messaging and in prompting a broader dialogue about the virus and the long-term toll on the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. Of the initiative, Weems has stated that she “[hopes] to build awareness by asking questions, by providing the simple facts of our extraordinary realities, and embedding them inside powerful imagery.” Learn more about the project and other aspects of Weems’s practice during her
Slow.Look.Live. conversation on Instagram Live August 7 at 4 p.m. (MT).
View Weems’s Artist Takeover every Friday in the
Aspen Times from July 17 through August 7.