WORTHLESSSTUDIOS

Listen to Helena Goñi, @helena_goni talk about her time in residency this March in the Airstream darkroom at @aliceaustenhouse on Staten Island.📍📷 During her time in residence, Helena continued work on her project P.S. Come Visit, a project portraying artists in their domestic spaces, which reflects on  migration and New York City as a site of constant circulation, creative activity, and artistic practice.  Helena hosted an Open Studio during Alice Austen House’s Photography Triennial and a youth workshop for New York City students on introductory principles of photography during her residency. 🎞️ Thank you, Helena, for an amazing start to our Photographer in Residence program this year.💥 Helena’s Website: helenagoni.com Directed & Produced by Matthew Schonfeld @mbschonze Shot & Edited by Emma Callahan @callajandro

Happy Mother’s Day! We’re thinking of all the mothers of movement. 🌷 This March, Oscar Grant’s mother Rev. Wanda Johnson, @rev_wanda_johnson , and the 1-800 Happy Birthday Project hosted a mother’s circle and tea at the @blackpantherpartymuseum .  Mothers who lost their child to police violence gathered in the museum for a healing circle and shared meal. Mothers and the work that they do are central not just to this project but to our movements, communities, and lives.  Happy Mother’s Day from all of us.  Special thank you to event producer @solidgroundsco . As well as black women led practitioners and companies @breathandthecity , @cocoacentric , and @teaswithmeanin for supporting this experience.  Photos by Bethanie Hines, @bethaniehinesphotography 📸

In 2022, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS presented its first commissioned work, Fountain I, a seven-hour solo durational performance installation by Miles Greenberg, @miles.greenberg . In Fountain I, a lone figure stands atop a white plinth that floats over a large pond of blood.The figure’s chest and hands appear to be hemorrhaging profusely into the reservoir below.  Read more about Miles Greenberg’s work and Fountain I on our website at the link in our bio. 🔗

We’re so excited to celebrate Mohammad Gorjestani, @mohammad.earth , the artist behind @1800happybirthday , being named as one of @cultured_mag ’s CULT100. Since 2022, WORTHLESS has worked with Mohammad and the 1-800 Happy Birthday project. 📞🎈 Our work together included a large-scale exhibition in East Williamsburg in 2022 and a series of community events honoring the lives of 12 individuals killed by the police. Since then, we launched a new website and produced exhibitions and public art installations in Ferguson, MI, Oakland, CA, and San Francisco celebrating the birthdays of Michael Brown and Oscar Grant, amongst others. The project continues to evolve in collaboration with the families of celebrants. Stay tuned for more exhibitions and updates. 🗓️ Mohammad is an Iranian-born filmmaker, multidisciplinary arts, and the founder of @evenodd.studio , a creative studio and production company. His short film EXIT 12 won six Academy Award qualifying festivals and was acquired by Fox Searchlight. His feature, ‘From the Mat,’ also supported by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS is set to debut this year.  To learn more about Mohammad’s work, read the Guardian piece on 1-800 Happy Birthday in the Bay’ at the link in our bio. 🔗 Photography by Julian Edward.

5 years ago, in 2021, RockIt Black, a sculpture by Tanda Francis, @tandafrancis , created as part of the Plywood Protection Project, was being fabricated and prepared for installation in Queensbridge Park. Plywood Protection Project collected the plywood boards that covered New York City’s businesses in 2020 amid pandemic and protest and selected 5 sculptors to create public art with the upcycled material. Tanda’s sculpture RockIt Black transformed the material into a mirrored portal with many faces of Mani Wata, Oshun, an African Goddess, representing a Black divine feminine cleansing entity opening interdimensional possibilities. Read more about Tanda Francis’s work and the Plywood Protection Project on our website or in New York Times’s coverage of the project at the link in our bio 🔗.

Curator for @1800happybirthday Benjamin “BJ” McBride, @bjmcbride23 , visited @kron4tv in their San Francisco Studio to highlight the work of the project this year in the Bay Area. He highlighted the 1-800 Happy Birthday exhibitions and installations in the Bay we hosted with @for_site , @blackpantherpartymuseum , and @blackjoyparade as well as the impact the project has had for families and the broader community. As these exhibitions close in the Bay and the project continues, BJ discussed the future of 1-800 Happy Birthday which will continue to evolve with the new website, more exhibitions across the country highlighting celebrants in different states, and talks of a book on the way. Visit 1800happybirthday.com to listen to the digital voicemail archive, learn more about the exhibitions, and watch the short films. Artist: @mohammad.earth Curator: @bjmcbride23 Created in collaboration by @worthlessstudios , @evenodd.studio , @campaignzero Supported by @eastbaycf , @sanfranciscofoundation , @calendow , and The Mellon Foundation.

FREE FILM, @freefilmproject , the WORTHLESSSTUDIOS project that distributed free rolls of film to thousands of photographers across the country culminated in three photo books. 🎞️📚 These books compile three iterations of the project:  FREE FILM : USA, documents 18 cities across the country 🗺️ FREE FILM : JUNE 2020, documents the historic moments of 2020 🪧 FREE FILM : NYC, documents 6 distinct neighborhoods of New York City 🏙️ The books can be purchased separately or as a bundle in our store at the link in our bio 🔗.

🎂 Welcome to the new 1800happybirthday.com We wanted the digital expression of this project to reflect a feeling of love and celebration, taking cues from the project’s nationwide exhibitions and installations—where voicemails are experienced within environments that expand our understanding of systemic violence and its impact. Our aim has always been to refocus attention on the lives of people who were deeply loved, moving beyond the headlines that shaped narrow public narratives toward something deeply human we can all relate to: birthdays. The new site features original airbrush portraits of each celebrant, dedicated pages to each celebrant, and a screening room featuring films produced by the project. To commemorate the launch of the new site, we’re also dropping new 1-800 Happy Birthday flagship shirt and the Happy Birthday Oscar Grant shirt which was originally printed for our exhibition at the Black Panther Party Museum. 🔗 👕 Shirts are now available at evenodd.studio/shop ☎️ 1-800 Happy Birthday Project Shirt - $50 Proceeds support the project and the families at its center. 8.2 oz heavyweight cotton. Boxy fit, dropped shoulders. Printed in the Bay Area. 🍰 Happy Birthday Oscar Grant Shirt - $50 Proceeds go directly to the Oscar Grant Foundation. 8.2 oz heavyweight cotton. Boxy fit, dropped shoulders. Printed in the Bay Area. SITE CREDITS – Produced by — @evenodd.studio Creative Director — @mohammad.earth Art Director & Design — @diy__j Producer — @hkinder Airbrush — @hey.ruca Site Development — @strange.pixelss Data — Hannah Farris, @goodmorningolive Project & Content Management — @worthlessstudios

We brought 1-800 Happy Birthday home to the Bay 🌁🎈 With one week left of @1800happybirthday exhibitions at @blackpantherpartymuseum and @for_site , we’re reflecting on an amazing series of exhibitions and public art installations across SF and Oakland earlier this year. In January, we installed a phone booth and living room exhibition at the @for_site guardhouse, coinciding w SF Art Week. 🖼️☁️ In February, we opened Happy Heavenly Birthday Oscar in celebration of Oscar Grant’s 40th birthday @blackpantherpartymuseum . 🎂📞 And, at the end of the month, we joined @blackjoyparade with a payphone pop-up at the Healing Village. 🎊 Make sure to visit the exhibitions before they close and learn more about our presence in the project’s work in the Bay Area in the @1800happybirthday feature in the Guardian (via the link 🔗 in our bio 🔗) - @blackpantherpartymuseum closes on April 11 - @for_site closes on April 20 Thankful for the community that came together to support this work, and the team behind the scenes: Artist: @mohammad.earth Curator: @bjmcbride23 Created in collaboration by @worthlessstudios , @evenodd.studio , @campaignzero Supported by @eastbaycf , @sanfranciscofoundation , @calendow , and The Mellon Foundation. Video shot and edited by @ericksaladbar

This March, Helena Goñi, @helena_goni , is in residence in the Airstream darkroom at @aliceaustenhouse in Staten Island, beginning our year of Photographer in Residence. 🏙️🎞️ On Saturday, she hosted an Open Studio during the opening of Resilient Communities, Alice Austen House’s 4th Triennial of Photography. Visitors explored the mobile darkroom and saw a selection of Helena’s work and publications.  While in residence, Helena will continue her ongoing project PS Come Visit. The project is conceived as a flexible installation. Images are intended to be presented in a scattered, collage-like arrangement, allowing for open associations and multiple readings rather than a fixed sequence. Stay tuned as Helena develops new work! 📸: @carlos_delasancha

With one week left of our WARP open call, we wanted to highlight our 2026 WARP Selection Committee.  The WARP Selection Committee plays a vital role in supporting artists working on ambitious large-scale sculpture. 🧱 Members take an active role in the process by reviewing artist proposals and helping select which artists receive the resources and support to realize major projects. 🗳️ We are proud to welcome an extraordinary inaugural group of supporters to this committee, including celebrated artists, renowned gallerists, esteemed collectors and philanthropists, and visionary cultural stewards, among many others. 💥 Apply to WARP before March 31 at the link in our bio. 🔗

Extended by popular demand! Catch Happy Birthday Oscar @blackpantherpartymuseum until April 11, 2026. Hours: Wednesday - Saturday | 10:00AM - 3:00PM Book your tour at #blackpantherparty #oscargrant #oakland #bayarea #artandculture