Telling Histories: Installations by Ellen Rothenberg and Carrie Mae Weems

The contemporary interest in interrogating, resisting, and manipulating history is witnessed in Ellen Rothenberg and Carrie Mae Weems's recent installations. Their narratives are not dry history lessons, but rich evocations in a personal voice. Like memory, their art is supple. Their meanings are elusive, their narratives open-ended, their information malleable.In Beautiful Youth, Rothenberg creates a workroom where womanhood is produced. She employs Nazi propaganda photographs, body fragments, aprons, and other elements to expose the patriarchal definition and use of women's "essential" qualities.Carrie Mae Weem's Ritual and Revolution, comprised of multiple banners of sheer muslin, invites us into a symphonic presentation of First and Third-World cultures through time. Her story is told in digitally printed images, including classical temples and African slave sites, European palaces and Mayan ruins.McInnes, Mary D. is the author of 'Telling Histories: Installations by Ellen Rothenberg and Carrie Mae Weems' with ISBN 9781881450115 and ISBN 1881450112.