LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER: MOTHER MAY I
Mother May I is the first solo museum exhibition of artist LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982). The exhibition presents a selection of works that stem from a personal documentary and portraiture project that the artist initiated nearly ten years ago and that culminated in a series of photographs called The Notion of Family. Mother May I is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER:
MOTHER MAY I
MAY 27 – JULY 25, 2010
Mother May I is the first solo museum exhibition of artist LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982). The exhibition presents a selection of works that stem from a personal documentary and portraiture project that the artist initiated nearly ten years ago and that culminated in a series of photographs called The Notion of Family. The exhibition also includes four films—some never publicly exhibited—that are shown together for the first time. Frazier’s still and moving images are true, poetic and poignant testimonies that record the artist’s home(s) and family life. The unstaged, naturally lit, stark work is subtly informed by the photographs of Roy de Carara and Carrie Mae Weems, among other notable figures of the world of photography and art.
Frazier’s work deals incisively and singularly with the psychological and biological lineage that unites her grandmother, mother and herself, revealing at the same time the unavoidable issues of race, class, conflict and substance abuse that surround them. The emotionally charged relationships captured on film, at times appear to blur the line between real life and performance, making viewers part of a private and otherwise inaccessible world, and engaging them in an uncomfortable exercise in voyeurism that urges us to reconsider any preconceived or idealized notions of family and community.
Mother May I is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.
