Nearing Each Other: Christine CMC Bethea

Nearing Each Other, the 89th installment in Carnegie Museum of Art’s Forum Series, invites us to reimagine our own complex connections to place as a site of unfolding relationships. In this exhibition, place may be an environment, a material experience, or a memory to suggest notions of belonging and transformation.

Christine CMC Bethea’s assemblage of found objects, If You Know What It Is, You’ll Know What It Does: After Effects of Maximalism (2024), contends with the figure of the “keeper” as part of her artistic practice and family heritage. Her found objects are often discovered discarded on neighborhood streets of Pittsburgh and at flea markets, while some have been passed down by family and friends. As a keeper, Bethea has been caring for many of her objects for half a century, as she is committed to their individual histories and use by past owners. Connecting her practice to her father and grandfather’s shared passion for collecting, this work explores a timeline of experiences, personal relationships, and family histories. While the figurative structure with a guitar torso stands in for her missing brother, the collection of pink pointe shoes conveys the artist’s childhood desire to be a ballerina. These representations and more are embraced by long threads of red jute twine to symbolize her family lineage.