Weems' Revision of Mission Impossible Message

In this photograph Carrie Mae Weems reinterprets the well known Mission Impossible message by moving the subject 'The Mission' to the second part of the sentence and the action 'if you choose to accept it' to the beginning of the sentence. Jim is at a table, his head bathed in smoke from an unknown source, he holds a tumbler of, presumably, liquor. There is a bottle of Mouton Cadet Red wine on the table, an ashtray of cigarette butts, a phone off the hook whose cord recedes out of the picture and a tape deck. Jim is focused on the tape deck. The look on his face tells me he isn't completely sold on the idea, but that he's heard the tape. He contemplates.
The most important part of the sentence has become choosing to accept. Weems asks Jim to choose to accept, and by doing so he will accomplish the mission of landing on his own two feet. The missions set forth upon in Mission Impossible don't hold a candle to what Weems is asking Jim to do.
In the American television series of the 1960's unknown sources asked secret agents known as the impossible mission task force (IMF) to combat evil, the means by which they were to do so changed with each episode. After playing the tape, the tape deck erupted. In this photograph there is surely the notion that something will erupt.
Weems hasn't missed this opportunity to reconsider what that can mean.

Carrie Mae Weems - Jim and Mission Impossible

Alfred Maurer reappeared after a short hiatus, full of wonder and questions. Comments, too; we'll get to those later. We watched the Winston Marsalis and then went to sleep. This morning I thought about his reaction to "Jim". He loved the tonal qualities of the black and white. The pendant hanging above the kitchen table casts light down from a circle of brightness. The cubist in Alfred thought the well defined black triangle emphasized the circle. Floating across the middle of the image is smoke from what is probably Jim's 10th cigarette. I couldn't get Alfred to tell me if he used to smoke but he obviously understood the sense of despair that Jim must have been feeling. He remembers Harlem and figures Jim may be between jobs, between girls and looking to smoke and drink to comfort him. Alfred thought the choice of wine was a good one. He just hoped that Jim wouldn't be drinking it all at once. He also wondered what that object was in the upper right hand corner. I told him we'd head to the museum this morning and check it out. Weems' reference to mission will also come later.

For now, I'll leave you with this short video of Carrie Mae Weems' opening in NYC. The exhibit itself was quite stunning in person. Alfred was miffed he hadn't met me when I was in New York so I could take him to it. Weems' work is both stunning and informative.