Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.
"Osama," "Bush-ism," "Mother (expletive)," "Infidel," "Regime Change," "Axis of Evil."
In artist Clayton Campbell's new work, "Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11," we get a glimpse of the scary world spinning around in the mind of a politically aware pre-teen in a 9/11 world.
The exhibit, on display at UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall through January, features 53 photos of Campbell's 13-year-old son, who at age 12 posed in a tae kwon do outfit holding signs of words that have been stitched into our vocabulary over the past four years.
While some try to compartmentalize these words, Campbell's son Nick couldn't. He was bombarded by them, confused by them and wrestling with nightmares.
"It really began in the 2000 election when he realized that something had really misfired, something that shook his future and sense of certainty," Campbell said via telephone from the 18th Street Art Complex in Santa Monica, Calif., where he is co-executive director.
"It felt like the election had occurred unfairly. He's in school learning about democracy and it's such a wonderful thing and suddenly it's not working. All of this starts accumulating over a period of time, especially with 9/11, terrorism, India and Pakistan on verge of a nuclear war. This begins to get inside," he said.
Campbell added, "At the bottom of this was the sense that maybe there wasn't going to be a future. I talked to a lot of his friends and parents, they all seemed to feel the same way."
It was decided that Nick would journal his thoughts, keep a list of the words he was learning, or even words he knew, but that had taken on a new meaning.
Eventually it became a father/son project, and Campbell, a Los Angeles multimedia artist and set designer, chose photography as the medium.
What happened was a spontaneous photo shoot in Campbell's studio following his son's tae kwon do class. During the session Nick Campbell held signs and reacted to the words.
"I had felt concerned about the state of the world for a long time," Nick Campbell said. "I was trying to make a point of stuff in the news. It has an effect on children because they still have an open mind about everything."
The exhibit was displayed this spring in Paris at Maison de Europeenne de la Photographie, a center for contemporary photography that features exhibit areas and a library. Four of the photos from this exhibit are now part of the Library of Congress' collections of prints and photographs division. At UNLV it is on display only to those attending events.
The photographs cover the main walls of the lobby and are simple and mostly unadulterated.
"I really wanted this to be as much as possible (Nick's) point of view," Campbell said. "I decided to shoot it straight almost as a snapshot. I really wanted to get out of the way.
"One of things that makes this piece work is that is a point of view of a 12-year-old."
To manipulate the photos, Campbell said, "It would have altered his very pure response. Because this is him, I wanted to have his integrity and honesty. The words he has chosen ask fundamental questions of who we are and where are going."
Curator Robert Tracy, a UNLV professor and the director of the college of fine arts advising center, says the 8 1/2-by-11-inch photos hanging in the lobby give viewers a chance to see them as "kind of a field."
"It's very reflective and will cause people to think about how this country has changed, to stop and think and realize that it's something happening to adults and handed down to children."
Campbell has had two other exhibitions at UNLV, including an exhibit of large-scale portraits of Irish writers, shown in the Barrick Gallery.
Three of the pieces displayed in Barrick were purchased and donated to UNLV. Three of his monochromatic paintings and assemblies are hanging indefinitely in the lobby of the Judy Bayley Theatre.
Tracy met Campbell in Belfast, Ireland, when the two were on study tour for curators arranged by the British government. There they met with Northern Irish artists struggling with Protestant Catholics.
Campbell's work includes mixed media works and printmaking. Other photographic works include semi-colorized photos of statues at Forest Lawn Cemetery and a photographic exhibit featuring a Holyfield match that Clayton refereed for a promotional video. The latter is on display in Zagreb, Croatia.
Campbell said "Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11" cuts across politics and is bipartisan.
"Anyone can look at this and have a discussion," Campbell said. "Children are thinking deeply about things and they're not going to let it ride. Tension is in the air. Plenty of adults around me have all shut down because it's just too much.
"I look at what my son is struggling with, but also the humor and his own sense of humanity and it gives me hope."
The project, Campbell said,"had the desired effect. It really calmed him down. When you can put a name to fears, it really helps."
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