“For more than a year, it’s felt as though we had no choice in how we lived our lives. Now, as we exit the pandemic, there’s a new feeling of agency – that we can be active participants in making our own future. What is the future we want to see?”
Stephanie Diamond, artist, entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Listings Project, is talking about her new “Works in Progress” exhibition, BECOMING FUTURE. A collective work of social practice art, it explores the idea of how the future we imagine for ourselves looks to others — and what connects our individual visions of the future.
“There’s something really powerful about photography’s capacity to tell many different stories simultaneously,” says Diamond. “I’m interested in everyone’s point of view on the images in the exhibition, not just the person who took them. Most of the participants are not speaking about their own future as an individual – they’re speaking about our collective future.”
“I’ve been interested in community ever since I was a child,” she continues. “I’m interested in making work with people, as opposed to for people.” Starting with fifteen “artists and creative thinkers and thought-makers,” and open to “anyone in the world with a camera,” the exhibition invites people to choose a photograph from their personal archive that points to a future they want to see.
What general themes have emerged?
“People are thinking about photographs they already have, photographs that are in their orbit, in their energy, something that they’ve already lived with – and choosing one that they want to move forward with. The pandemic has opened space for us to be vulnerable together. I’m seeing people very comfortable with their own vulnerability, sharing images and words of hope and sadness that maybe we haven’t talked about before. A personal experience shared publicly for all of our futures. It’s so clear there’s a consciousness that the whole world experienced the pandemic together; completely clear that we are all connected.”
“Nilaya Sabnis’ words are really potent, talking about time in a way that is almost beyond past, present and future,” says Diamond.
How can people get involved?
“This is a project for every single person — it’s open to anybody who has a phone! All you need to do is spend a little time looking at your past pictures and thinking about how you see your future, and what you want your future to be. Pick one, talk about it, and share it on Instagram using the hashtag #BeingFuture92Y,” says Diamond.
In revealing how we each privately imagine what the world could be, BECOMING FUTURE brings us closer to a collective understanding.
If you would like to participate in the BECOMING FUTURE virtual exhibition, you can find instructions for doing so here. Selected images will be included in the exhibition on the 92Y website.
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“Works in Progress” is made possible by the generous support of Gilda Block. Additional support is provided by the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
Photo Credit: Leslie Hewitt @lesliehewitt