Untitled (Peanuts)
Date1992
Mediumtwo gelatin silver prints and two screen print text panels
DimensionsOverall: 20 1/4 × 84 inches (51.4 × 213.4 cm)
Framed (Individual): 20 1/4 × 20 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches (51.4 × 51.4 × 3.8 cm)
Portfolio/Series"Sea Islands" series
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by the Gari Melchers Collectors’ Society and the W. Howard Steiner Fund.
Object number2018.6.a-d
Copyright© Carrie Mae Weems, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextThe two center photographs depict Savannah businesses that are no longer extant: the left-oriented center photograph indicates a business named “Max’s” operating as a wash and dry and small grocery store and possibly a restaurant, providing some context on Southern foodways, and by connection, Gullah-Geechee and African American foodways in Savannah; the right-oriented image shows “Awesome Hair Performance” at 1911 MLK Blvd with a Muslim star and crescent icon hand painted near the front door on the exterior wall, and “Steven’s Peanuts” at 1911 ½ MLK Blvd (possibly a walk-up window business) as indicated by the hand-painted signage and sweet potato pie signage. Given the specificity of geography to our city, this image makes most sense in our institutional collection from this Sea Islands series.The work also makes significant connection to the etymology of Gullah, and connections to Gullah language in the two screen-printed panels (and in our exhibition didactics panel), which is an important part of the story of the series and to our region. The left-hand panel illustrates possible etymological variants and spellings of Gullah and Geechee, stating from top to bottom: GOLA, ANGOLA, GULLA, GULLAH, GEECHEE. The right-hand panel states: MPINDA, NGUBA, GOOBER, PEANUTS—all words meaning “peanut” in African languages and Gullah creoles (“mpinda” is a word in Kikongo, a Bantu language spoken by the Kongo peoples in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola regions of Africa, meaning “peanut,” of which “nguba” is another variant). Most Southerners recognize the term “goober” as another name for the peanut. This regionalism is one of a small stock of words that entered American English from the languages spoken by the Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas during the 1600s and 1700s. Many of these words of African origin have to do with foods.
