Summer of Resistance, (Protest Art), 2020-21
About the artist. Psychologist and artist, Alan Entin, PhD, ABPP, is a pioneer in the field of phototherapy, the use of photographs and albums in psychotherapy. Dr. Entin served as President of the Virginia Psychological Association, and the APA Divisions of Psychologists in Independent Practice, Family Psychology and Media Psychology. In 2008, he received the Rosalee Weiss Award by the American Psychological Foundation for his leadership and contributions to psychology and the arts.
Alan Entin’s photographs have been included in juried and curated national and international exhibitions, on the cover of the American Psychologist (Jan. 2006), the compact disc Arlo Guthrie LIVE AT APA: MY PEACE, and the cover of Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology edited by Michael Roberts and Stephen Ilardi (2003).
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Dr. Entin is a licensed clinical psychologist in independent practice specializing in marriage, family and relationships in Richmond, VA.
About the art, by the artist. My photographs bear witness to the uncomfortable truths of the darkness in the heart of our country and the lives of people lost because of race and class, often an unrecognized or ineffective response to a mental health or behavioral emergency. The real tragedy is that no one will ever see what the victims of police brutality might have accomplished with their lives, and what their children would have grown up to be.
From a vantage point high above the statue, in my office as a clinical psychologist, I always wondered “what if…” What if individuals with emotional or behavioral problems were able to get support and help with their problems, what if someone listened to them and understood their cries for help, and what if we could replace action with listening and talking? What if all those who had lost their lives could have lived?
George Floyd was memorialized in Richmond. His death at the hands of the police galvanized the Black Lives Matter and Racial Justice movement and he was memorialized at what was to become acclaimed as the most influential form of American protest art since World War II, at the Monument of Robert E. Lee. Prayers and chants were offered by his family and friends to wish him well in his final transition. A deteriorating holographic projection against the graffiti covered monument to Robert E. Lee is a metaphorical tribute to the final journey of George Floyd and a prayer for social justice, the end of systemic racial discrimination and the hope for peace and equality.
The Summer of Resistance, (Protest Art), 2020-21, is a multiple exposed photograph meant to reflect the chaos, energy and anarchy of the protests, tributes and celebrations that took place at the Monument that stood for so many differing values and beliefs in Richmond.
