As the sun went down and the scorching temperatures dipped on Monday night in Richmond, lighting artist Dustin Klein, 33, set up a small generator, a 4500-lumen HD projector with a stand, and a laptop loaded with projection mapping software and graphics on the grassy median of Monument Avenue, west of the Robert E. Lee monument.
Klein beamed the face of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who was killed in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis, onto the statue's 40-foot-high graffiti-covered base, with the words “No Justice No Peace” lit up above Floyd and the acronym “BLM” shone onto the side of Lee’s horse.
Dustin Klein (Photo by Keith Griner)
Klein is a Richmond-based light designer who grew up in Chesterfield and studied at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Normally, he would be on the road at music festivals, projecting psychedelic and upbeat lighting displays set to music, but he has been grounded since the coronavirus pandemic.
Klein first hauled his equipment out to Monument Avenue on June 2, after witnessing the tear-gassing of protesters at the site the previous Saturday night. He felt the projections would counter the pro-slavery message of the Confederate general monuments and peacefully amplify the protests.
"I set up, and everyone appreciated it,” Klein says. “The memorial [to Floyd and others at the monument] is super sad, and we are all trying to grieve, but the [projected] faces have resonated, they’re haunting. I think that's why people have been asking me to come back."
While Klein doesn't usually make political art, this action speaks to the moment, giving context to the monument immediately, bypassing commissions and public art committees. The projections have had an impact beyond Richmond. Images on social media have garnered over 100,000 likes and have been seen by over a million people, Klein says.
“We’re not being destructive,” he adds. “We’re turning the images on the monument into a peaceful protest. It's been nice and affirming to interact with people here."
Klein wants to keep providing his version of a fleeting public art that conveys the gravity of lives lost and is contemplating possible different approaches, but he’s also not sure how long to continue. He says he will play it by ear and listen to the movement.
