Supported by the Orpheus Center’s Level Up program, the upcoming exhibition at The Lightbox gathers postcard photographs returned from around the world.
Otis is drawn to words — the way they can be rearranged to create entirely different meanings. “Words can take you on journeys,” he said. Each phrase becomes an “alternate universe.”
That philosophy materializes in Level Up: Word Collision Project, Otis’s upcoming exhibition at The Lightbox in Woking, U.K., starting May 13.
Otis’s alma mater, the Orpheus Center, supported the project through their Level Up program. Orpheus is a college and charity that helps disabled young adults with a passion for the arts grow life skills, confidence, and independence. When asked what his experience at Orpheus was like, Otis described it as “like a happy character in a film.”
Level Up guides participants toward real-life experiences and connections in the arts. It’s one of the ways they continue to support alumni after graduating.
Otis developed the Word Collision Project alongside his mentor, poet Mark Cooper. He instinctively arranged letter tiles into phrases, some meaningful and others more random. Phrases like “fooled human,” “have a day,” and “roar alone quiet human” emerged. “Mark helped me with my artwork. He helped me to keep going. He set me challenges each week,” says Otis.
“For this piece… I pick a handful of letters, and I make a word. Some new and some old. I have favorites which appear in my mind.”
Otis
Otis then turned the phrases into postcards and sent them around the world, inviting recipients to photograph them in their own locations and send the images back to Orpheus. He mentions, “For this piece… I pick a handful of letters, and I make a word. Some new and some old. I have favorites which appear in my mind. I choose them because some make sense, whilst others are random. Snark or Foolish… funny.”
Responses arrived from landscapes, landmarks, and city streets spanning London, Berlin, Prague, New Delhi, Moscow, Hong Kong, Australia, Zambia, Canada, California, and even Antarctica. As responses arrived via email, Otis looked up the locations on Google Earth. He wanted to visit them all.
A selection of the returned photographs now makes up the Word Collision Project exhibition. The response to the postcards helped Otis connect with people far beyond Orpheus, said Nina Holmes, Arts Development Coordinator at Orpheus. Though visually simple, the project invites others into the creative process, letting the work evolve across different locations and perspectives.
“When they’re given real platforms, not tokenistic ones,” Holmes said, “they get to show the full range of their talent, ambition and imagination.”
Nina Holmes, Arts Development Coordinator, Orpheus.
“The work very much communicates Otis’s view of the world, as he interacts with it,” she said. Otis’s goal has always been for his art to be “seen around the world,” said Holmes. Watching the project travel around the world was rewarding for Otis. “It’s good to be part of an ambitious project,” he said.
Holmes described the project as an example of what Level Up aims to provide: genuine opportunities for disabled artists to develop their creative voices and gain real-world experience. “Creativity is one of the few spaces where people can define themselves on their own terms,” she said.
Too often, disabled artists are reduced to assumptions rather than recognized for the full scope of their work. “When they’re given real platforms, not tokenistic ones,” Holmes said, “they get to show the full range of their talent, ambition and imagination.” Otis’s postcards traveled from Surrey to Antarctica, proving how far an idea can go with the right support behind it.
Homepage banner, FOOLED HUMAN location, London, England: homepage, ROAR ALONE QUIET HUMAN location: Nuuk Art Museum, Nuuk, Greenland. Inside top left, OR ME location: Monkey World, Dorset, England, inside top right, HAVE A DAY location: Antarctica.
Level Up: Word Collision at Lightbox Gallery & Museum, Woking, Surrey, 13th-24th May. Weds-Sat: 10am-5pm, Sun: 10am-4pm.
