Next to the image in large font, Guinyard writes, “In America, it is TRADITIONAL to destroy the black body!!” Guinyard poses next to their mural in downtown Greensboro. Their mural depicts an androgynous black figure, painted in shades of gray and black, their face covered by a large red target. Guinyard, who is one of McClinton’s students, says they got started creating art digitally but soon moved into working with their hands. Guinyard finished their own mural last week on a wall at the corner of South Elm and Lewis streets. “I mean, we’re already leaders but we’ll start to be acknowledged as leaders…. “We decided to use a black woman because there’s going to come a time soon when black women will rise to become leaders,” McClinton explains. And finally, at the end of the mural, the girl has transformed into a woman whose peaceful face is angled back towards her past selves. Further down the line, the girl is a teenager and wears flowers in her hair and has her fist raised in the air. She smells a larger flower that she holds to her face. In the next panel, she’s older, in middle school and is starting to reflect on her experiences. McClinton explains how she’s innocent and has no idea the kind of hate that can exist in the world. The young girl that McClinton is painting holds a small flower with her outstretched hand. The idea, McClinton says, was to show how racism can affect a black individual throughout their life. The mural at Elsewhere - which was collaboratively designed and created by McClinton and Marsh, along with artists Jamin Guinyard, Neidy Perdomo, Kidd Graves, Tambra Parsons, Xavier Carrington and Quadasia Prescod - depicts the transformation and growth of a young black girl from childhood into adulthood. We’re doing intentional black art which is political in and of itself because usually we are the token on projects, and in this situation, it’s being led by black artists.” “In the beginning everyone saw this opportunity to get art up in a place that it never has before and probably will never be again, which is on storefronts on main street,” Marsh says. Artists work on the mural at Elsewhere in downtown Greensboro. He says that the influx of murals in the wake of the protests is exciting but that black artists shouldn’t be relegated to the sidelines. Organization becomes a means for ordering and tracing the trajectories of an evolving community.Marsh, who owns Rockers Print Shop, a graphic and fine-art firm, has also been working with the city for years to create public art. The internal circulation of things enables Elsewhere to approach creative practice as a basis for communication and response. Here, antique objects and art objects, neither sacred, coexist in a transforming installation that creates constellations of materials, processes, and products. The collection (or “set”) of objects at Elsewhere forms a limit within which infinitely derivable contexts, works, and arrangements are demonstrated and performed. OrganizationĮlsewhere is operated by its two founders/ co-directors, a shifting team of curators, fellows, interns, and a cabinet of community members. Volunteers, artists, members, and visitors participate in public inquiry and engagement in this one-of-a-kind environment. As Elsewhere’s are everywhere in mind and matter–these ideas of sustainable transformation, holistic inclusivity, and creative inquiry can be translated to sites across the globe. Re-invigorating the South Elm neighborhood of downtown Greensboro through global and local exchanges, Elsewhere imagines our neighborhood as a place where available resources, at-hand beauty, and diverse citizens actively engage past, present, and future. VisionĮlsewhere’s collaborative approach investigates storytelling and play as a means for repurposing the resources of our past, exploring layered individual visions, and new possibilities for integrating creative practice in everyday life and society. With people and things, we build collaborative futures.
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