As an artist who never learned to draw or paint, Hank Willis Thomas has utilized nearly every other medium of visual art.
This last weekend, the Portland Art Museum celebrated the opening of Thomas’ first major retrospective. “All Things Being Equal” is a collection of over 90 works — including sculptures, quilts, photographs and video installations — that focus on racism and social justice. On October 14, the University of Oregon Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series hosted Thomas to discuss his work.
At the event, Thomas said his path to creating this unique survey was shaped by the loss of both a cousin and a treasured art form. In college, he enjoyed art but didn’t plan on making it a career; instead, he opted to stay in school until he “figured out a better plan.” On the day his graduate school application was due, his cousin was murdered, transforming Thomas’ perspective on life and art. “It made me feel like I had to make work that was important, that meant something, if only to me and my family,” said Thomas.
After graduating, the focus of Thomas’ studies — analogue photography — was pushed into the past by the rise of digital cameras. “Three years after I graduated, virtually everything I had learned in college was gone,” said Thomas. “All I was left with instead was how to look at pictures, how to talk about pictures, and how to think critically about the way they circulate in the world.”
Losing his connection to photography pushed Thomas to find original ways of telling a story with images and objects. His vast body of unique work includes the “Truth Booth,” a piece of public art shaped like a giant speech bubble. Upon entering the bubble, people are prompted by the question, “everyone has their version of the truth, what’s yours?” Their responses are captured by a video recorder and compiled into audit-visual works.
“It’s a project that relies on the generosity of the participants to actually go and video record themselves being vulnerable,” said Thomas.
His emphasis on collaborative work reflects the title of Thomas’ retrospective; “All Things Being Equal.”
“I come in to the studio recognizing that I’m just a piece of the puzzle and that I can make the most interesting things to me by getting the participation and collaboration of someone else,” said Thomas. All things being equal, art isn’t just about the genius of one individual, but the voices of many.
Thomas believes that by acknowledging equality, we can empower ourselves to have an impact on the world rather than waiting for someone more exceptional to come along and speak or act for us.
As much as he hopes his work will affect the world, Thomas also relies on it for his own well-being. “I have a faint belief that something I create someday might save my life.”