A black-and-white photo of a young Black girl, close-up on her face, with a hand pouring bottled water into her open mouth.

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Shea brushing Zion’s teeth with bottled water in her bathroom, from the Flint is Family series, 2016-17

Gelatin silver print. Museum purchase made possible by the University of Michigan Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Director’s Acquisition Committee, 2019, 2019/1.314 Installation photography by Charlie Edwards, courtesy of the University of Michigan Museum of Art

About the Art

Shea Brushing Zion's Teeth with Bottled Water in Her Bathroom (Anishinaabemowin)

LaToya Ruby Frazier
Gichimookomaanakiing, 1982 gaa-ondaadizi

Shea ogiziiyaabide’aan Zionan miiziiwigamigong ge aabajitood bakaan nibi gaa-onzikaa Maamawi-Ingodoode Mishkodewenying mazinaakiziganikewinan
2016–17
Waabi-zhooniyaawaaboo mazinaakizigan
Michigan Gichigabegikendaasowigamig izhi-maamawi-naagadanending gaye Wegimaawiwaad Geshpinadoojig dash wenji-gishpinadooyaang, 2019, 2019/1.314

LaToya Ruby Frazier aabajitoon omazinaakiziganim mii dash aanjitood ezhi-maamwibimaadiziyang. Shea ogiziiyaabide’aan Zionan ogii-nitaami-giizhenindaan epiichi Maamawi-Ingodoode Mishkodewenying mazinaakiziganan giizhenindang ji-dibaajimaad Cobb bemaadizijin onjibaanid Mishkodewenying, Michigan. Nitaamdibaajimaad Shea-an, odaanisiman Zion-an, miinawaa ogashiiman Renée-an ge niibawitaminid noondegwaaba’ibiinid owaakaa’iganiwaang. Gaa-maajii-izhiwebad 2014, apii naagaanizijig oodenang andawendamowaad awashime zhooniyaa mii dash onaakonamowaad anjitoowaad mookijiwang. Gaawiin biinaagaminzinoon miinawaa nibi-okijaabikoon bichibonaaniwang. Ginwenzh naagaanizijig ogiiwanimaan bemaadizijin Mishkodewenying.

Frazier ogii-wiidigemaan Cobban Mishkodewenying ge niibawitaminid noondegwaaba’ibiinid miinawaa ozhibii’ang izhiwebag. Ogii-gizhenindaan Shea ogiziiyaabide’aan Zionan mii dash wii-nisidotamang giishpin bezhig wiisagizid mii igo gakina wiisagiziwaad. Dibakonigemigad naagaanizijig oodenang wii-nanaa’itoowaad nibi-okijaabikoon miinawaa wii-miizhaawaad zhooniyaa 2022 mii aanawi geyabi niibawa bimaadizijig Mishkodewenying noondenoojimowaad.

Maamawi-Ingodoode Mishkodewenying LaToya Ruby Frazier ogii-gizhenindaan wii-waabanjigaadeg dagwaagin zhaawan-waabang MIshigamiing: Stamps Desagoode miinawaa Eli gaye Edythe Broad izhi-Ganawendaanaawaan Gaazheninjigaadeg ateg Mishigami Akiins Gichigabegikendaasowigamig, miinawaa Mishkodewenying izhi-Ganawendaanaawaan Gaazheninjigaadeg Waatebagaa-giizis 3, 2022, biinish Manidoo-giizis 2023.

Shea Brushing Zion's Teeth with Bottled Water in Her Bathroom (English)

LaToya Ruby Frazier

United States, born 1982

Shea brushing Zion’s teeth with bottled water in her bathroom from the Flint is Family series
2016–17
Gelatin silver print
Museum purchase made possible by the University of Michigan Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Director’s Acquisition Committee, 2019, 2019/1.314

LaToya Ruby Frazier is an artist and activist committed to using her camera as an agent of social change. Shea brushing Zion’s teeth is from the first of three acts in her Flint is Family photo essay series, which focuses on the Cobb family from Flint, Michigan. The first act introduces the Cobbs—Shea, her daughter Zion, and her mother Renée—as they endure the consequences of the city’s devastating water crisis. The crisis began in 2014, when the city decided to save money by changing its water supply to the Flint River; inadequate water treatment and outdated pipes contaminated much of the city’s potable water with lead, which the government long denied.

Frazier lived in Flint with the Cobbs for months, documenting the challenges the family faced without access to running water. Shea brushing Zion’s teeth poignantly features the day-to-day consequences of the ecological disaster in Flint—making personal the broader human toll of clean water crises. While pipe replacements are planned to be completed in 2022 and financial settlements of lawsuits began in January of 2022, activists say further support for long-term illnesses caused by the contaminated water is needed.

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s three-part Flint is Family series will be exhibited at three venues across southeast Michigan this fall; organized by U-M Stamps Gallery in collaboration with the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, and Flint Institute of the Arts, the exhibition will be on view at all three venues from September 3, 2022 through January 2023.

About the Exhibit

Watershed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Watershed was on display June 4–October 23, 2022. It brought recent work from fifteen contemporary artists to UMMA for an exhibition that immersed visitors in the interconnected histories, present lives, and imagined futures of the Great Lakes region.

Visit the exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art