Lives That Bind is a permanent and public art exhibition that is on display in the Santa Monica City Services Building, City Hall East. The art exhibition, curated by jill moniz, phd., features world renowned artists who are connected to Los Angeles County.
For Lives That Bind, I worked as videographer, photographer, editor, and content strategist with the leadership of Naomi Okuyama for the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division.
As Santa Monica prepares for the future, we reflect on its past. Legacies of inequality—embodied in structures of representation and opportunity—demand the inclusion of previously underrepresented or erased voices and communities that are part of the City’s past, present and future. These works represent the many voices that contribute to Santa Monica’s cultural landscape, and they help visualize the importance of its diverse communities. Pieces by Lavialle Campbell, Miguel Osuna, Umar Rashid, Emma Robbins and Linda Vallejo join those by Laura Aguilar, Charles Gaines, Kerry James Marshall, Alfredo Ramirez, Alison Saar, John Valadez and Richard Wyatt, contributing to a historic and aesthetic articulation of “Lives that Bind.”
Each artist addresses erasure and underrepresentation in a unique way, and each signifies identity and place in their artmaking—concepts at the core of sustainable communities and the common good. The resonance of these works shown together speak to how diversity unites us, and how multiple perspectives can perpetually renew conversations about identity, equity, and justice.
