Social practice/illustration/community arts
Community, gifts, gathering, recognition, public, participatory, illustration
2022-ongoing

How can I help recognize the outstanding work of others in my community that participate in vital but undervalued labour which often goes unrecognized?

Humans are social creatures. I am a social creature. I live in a heteropatriarchal society founded on colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism, where labour by marginalized people – especially women, queer people, and IBPOC folks – is often unseen and unrecognized. Community of Heroes sprang up as a way to openly nod to the individualism that our society idealizes while also recognizing that we must work as a community in order to survive.

In this project, I put out open public calls through online networks for people to nominate individuals for the Community of Heroes project. I then integrated my illustration practice by drawing a picture of the individual, and sending it to the person in question along with the nominator’s statement (which could be anonymous or not depending on the preference of the nominator). The individual then has the option to have their nomination posted online on the website communityofheroes.net, giving them the agency and control over how their image and recognition and is handled. The collected heroes remain archived on the Community of Heroes webpage. 

I want to explore a social practice that contributes, and that pays attention to invisible labour. I like to actively work within my community, and to expand the boundaries of those networks. I like to honour those who are doing good work, and to posit that communities are stronger than yet made up of individuals.