Carrie Mae Weems’ Intersectional Tropes: Engaging Black Feminism Within Arts Teacher Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we approach the visual tropes in Carrie Mae Weems’ bodies from an intersectional perspective through mobilising critical arts and black feminist studies for art pedagogies. A constant in Weems’ trajectory are the intersectional tropes that emerge in her artworks, which are collapsed with bodies, defying racial, gender, age, and social class stereotypes, stratification, and oppression. Aiming to engage black feminism with pedagogies, we revisit a critical art project that connects different spaces: the exhibition “Carrie Mae Weems: A Great Turn in the Possible”; and, a pre-service art teacher education course - “Childhoods: Inclusive narratives through art” - where narrative is a mode of decolonising pedagogy through contemporary art. First, we will examine the topics and strategies practised by five students’ micro-groups dealing with the critical and dialogical analysis of the intersectional tropes in Weems’ series. Second, we will reconstruct the process that has been conducted to transform and transfer that knowledge into educational spaces and resources designed to perform a feminist, intercultural, and social justice-oriented art education. Finally, the article discusses how critical pedagogy merges with critical arts to train future art educators while experimenting with a black feminist curriculum.