November 9, 2023
6 - 8pm
Artist Lab
Free & Open To The Public
Devin Fitchwell is a photo-based artist and archivist from Maryland, and a 2023 – 2024 AIR Program recipient. His practice explores his desire to make sense of the world using narrative and the indeterminacy of images taken with a camera. During his residency at TILT, Fitchwell has been developing Broken Bridges, a project that combines photographic documentation, found images, audio interviews, and office files to tell the story of his uncle, Jimmy Fitchwell, a former employee of the nuclear energy division of Westinghouse.
Jimmy Fitchwell played a significant role in cleaning the flooded reactors at Three Mile Island, the site of the worst U.S. commercial nuclear power plant meltdown. In 2017, he died from cancer, having been denied the opportunity to join a class action lawsuit against Westinghouse despite providing evidence that connected his illness to nuclear exposure. Stories like Jimmy Fitchwell’s are often obscured from public consciousness, increasingly muddled by legal settlements and corporate spin. Existing at the intersection of environmentalism and pro-labor causes, Broken Bridges works to illuminate the human lives sacrificed in service to American capitalism.
