Note: Be advised some images and language might be offensive.
Justin David Brink of Kalamazoo has created a piece for next month’s ArtPrize to get people talking about race. It's part artwork, part social experiment.
Brink, 38, is founder of the Proper Creative Movement. His nonprofit group is housed in a cozy storefront on South Street in downtown Kalamazoo next to a corner cigar shop. His group’s mission over the last three years? Use the arts to inspire Americans to “do something proper” to improve the world.
And that brings us to Brink’s ArtPrize entry titled “Behind Closed Doors.”
It consists of two bullet-riddled, old, white wooden doors with shattered glass panes. To each, Brink has attached a Jim Crow-era black, metal sign. One reads: “Colored Only, No Whites Allowed.” The other says: “White Only.”
http://youtu.be/O5thYaVSFxY
“I don’t know how we got to that," Brink says. "All I know is we’re real close to going back there, and we need to fix this.”
Annie Fainsinger, one of his friends, drops by one afternoon. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the now Kalamazoo resident says the "Behind Closed Doors" exhibit brings back "really difficult emotions."
She explains that her family migrated to the United States when she was a child because, although they are white, they didn’t approve of the discriminatory apartheid practices in their homeland directed toward black citizens there.
"It reminded me of apartheid days," Fainsinger says of Brink's installation, which goes on display Sept. 23 in Grand Rapids when Art Prize begins. During her many return visits to South Africa before the dismantling of apartheid, she remembers that signage prohibiting people of color from sitting on certain benches and eating in certain restaurants was commonplace.
“I’m so glad (Brink is doing the project) because I think it provides a forum for discussion about race relations. And it’s so timely.”
http://youtu.be/gNzrrZ9JTN4
Brink says the two doors that he distressed for his entry were shot with more than 75 bullets apiece. He says he was striving for a battle-scarred appearance.
"The glass is spidered with violent actions," he explains. "I think it communicates very improper behavior. Quite honestly, I think it I communicates a lot of things that are in the history of our country that have happened before, and are starting to happen again. It may have never gone away. So we are doing this for a very specific reason."
He says he decided to enter ArtPrize -- his first time ever -- after reaching a personal boiling point in May. It was about the time national headlines were describing extreme violence mounting against African-Americans. Brink, who is white, says he wanted to do his part to help with what he sees is increasing “racism and segregation” in the United States.
About a month and a half ago, Brink put the “Colored Only” door outside his business for a few hours, and sat inside to watch the reaction. Overall, he says the feedback has been positive, getting only one unfavorable response. It was from a white woman. After he explained to her that his intent is to encourage conversation, he says she supported the project.
Ronald Hart, a black man from Portage who saw the “Colored Only” door when Brink had it outside last month, agrees that the exhibit could start some needed dialogue.
“This door has a hell of a statement to it, especially with what’s going on in America today,” Hart says.
And that dialogue about race can happen 24 hours a day. Brink says he purposely keeps the interior lights on at Proper Creative Movement's storefront at 112 South St. so passers-by can still see his doors from the sidewalk at night.
ArtPrize is an international art competition in Grand Rapids that runs this year from Sept. 23-Oct. 11. "Behind Closed Doors" will be displayed at BANG Blowdry Bar, at 3 Oakes St. SW (Vote Code: 61851).