Since 1976 Clayton Campbell, based in Los Angeles has been exhibiting his art works at international and national museums, art centers and community venues. His longest running work, Words We Have Learned Since 9/11, or the Words Project, began in 2005 and is scheduled to culminate in New York 2021. Capturing the public zeitgeist, it has been presented in numerous venues in many countries over the past dozen years. The Words Project is a participatory photographic portrait exhibit that now consists of over 1300 photographs of persons who are captured in a precise moment holding signage on which are written either new words they have learned since 9/11 or words they know but have taken on a new meanings. It gives voice to generations who have awaken into a century of vast uncertainty and information complexities. The power of The Words Project is its uncensored and generous inclusion of people’s deepest feelings expressed though language and gesture. The artist, by listening to the participants express their hopes, dreams and apprehensions since “9/11” has tapped into their collective psyche by asking for words and phrases that have recently come into their vocabularies. The Words Project has become a non-partisan visual narrative, a poetic legacy for the first two decades of this century. It links people from disparate communities woven together in a non-linear visual conversation that evolves and intensifies the further we move away from September 11^th, 2001. “9/11” has become the iconic event at the start of the 21^st century, which virtually the entire world was made aware of and has in many way been impacted by. With each passing news cycle, it seems a new “9/11” springs up in another city, in another country, moving Campbell’s Words Project into new directions and dialogues with collaborating artists and participants.  The 9/11 Words Project to date has been exhibited nationally and internationally at Unit 24 Gallery, London; Higher Bridges Arts Center, Enniskellen, Northern Ireland; Nam Jun Paik Art Center, South Korea; Aaran Gallery in Tehran; Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris; t WYSPA Institute for Art, Gdansk Poland; Scope Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland; International Center of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Croatia tour- Photo Galerij Lang, Samobor, City Museum of Dubrovnik, Batana, Rovinj, City Museum of Vodice; Three Shadows Photography Museum, Beijing, Republic of China; University of Capetown, South Africa; Museum of Mobile, Alabama; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Barrick Art Museum, University of Nevada Las Vegas; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Wonder Institute, Santa Fe; Pitzer College Gallery, CA; Skid Row Archive and Museum, Los Angeles.

Video Inteview with Artist Clayton Campbell