Power Desire Social Justice Representation Beauty and Compassion Widely considered to be one of the most influential American living artists Carrie Mae Weems has developed a practice celebrated for her exploration of cultural identity power dynamics desire intimacy and social justice through a body of work that challenges the prevailing representations of race gender and class. Defined by the use of photography installation film performance and textile her remarkably diverse and radical practice questions dominant ideologies and historical narratives created and disseminated within science architecture and mass media. Published in the context of her solo exhibitions at Barbican Art Gallery London and Kunstmuseum Basel this book brings together a selection of Weems own writings lectures and conversations for the first time providing personal insights into themes such as the consequences of power artistic appropriation music as inspiration historymaking and the normative role of architecture.