A Thousand Words

How do social practice artists foster a sense of trust and belonging using lens-based practices that do not feel extractive to the communities they’re working in? A Thousand Words features the visual remnants of artists who use the camera, embodied research, and ongoing community engagement to tell a story that requires more than capturing a mere snapshot in time.

Interdisciplinary artist Rebecca Copper presents Waterways (of Ohio), an ongoing, socially-engaged lens-based project that centers different forms of knowledge, deep looking, and social relationships with the non-human life of local rivers, creeks, and waterways.Visual storyteller, educator, and socially-engaged artist Justin Maxon returns to Camp Washington for his second year with his ongoing project Field Guide to a Crisis, which breaks down hierarchies by providing strategies for survival directly from people in recovery. Artist, event curator, community organizer, and founder of Black Space, Darius Smith photographs people using the camera as a way to both document and celebrate those in his community of artists and creatives in Milwaukee, WI. Smith engages his practice to normalize mental health practices for Black and brown communities.

The co-creation practices that all three artists employ demonstrate the long-term relationship building that happens when artists work in partnership with communities.

Artists: Rebecca Copper, Justin Maxon, Darius Smith

Curator: Maria Seda-Reeder, Director of Exhibitions and Artist Support Initiatives