Please join us at SVMA as Chris Johnson, the artist and creator behind Question Bridge: Black Males, talks about the origins and creative process used to produce this eye-opening project over a decade in the making.
Prior to the talk SVMA encourages all audience members to experience the Question Bridge: Black Males video installation for themselves, either in person at the Museum or online at http://questionbridge.com/.
About Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson is a photographic and video artist, writer, curator and arts administrator. He is the author of The Practical Zone System: for Film and Digital Photography; currently in its 6th edition. Chris Johnson served as President of San Francisco Camerawork Gallery, Chair of the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission and Director of the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography. As a member of the Public Art Management Team for the Port of Oakland, Chris Johnson was Project Manager and originated the concept for the 8’ x 20’ Media Wall installed in Terminal 2 of Oakland’s International Airport. In 2021 he retired from his position of Professor and Chair of Photography at the California College of the Arts where for ten years he served as President of the Faculty Senate.
About Question Bridge
Johnson writes, ‘By creating an identity container (e.g. “Black” and “Male”), then creating a way of releasing the diversity of identities and thought within that container, we can break the container. Question Bridge strives to make it more difficult to say, ‘Black Males are…’ If we succeed in deconstructing stereotypes about arguably the most opaque and feared demographic in America, then the Question Bridge model can work to overcome limiting assumptions about any demographic.’