Conversations
I Can Do Something
Justin Richburg presents Gustav Metzger’s Damaged Nature
Earlier this year, curator Kate Fowle sought out animation artist Justin Richburg to imbue the ideas of artist and activist Gustav Metzger’s 1992 manifesto, Damaged Nature, with new energy. The result is a four-minute anime work the artist intended to be a “balance of lighthearted and serious.” Post-production, Fowle and Richburg come together to chat about the process of translating text into animation, the unlikely nature of inspiration and the importance of “moving forward” an artist’s legacy.
Kate Fowle: The starting point of this project was in thinking about how Damaged Nature, which Metzger wrote in 1992, is extremely relevant today and how Metzger, particularly as he aged, was very interested in reaching new generations of people with his ideas. He believed it was the only way to get somewhere—to get the youth to have a different opinion.
I was trying to track you down, because I loved what you did with the animation for “Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino. And as luck would have it Michael “Make” Mentore and I met by accident, and he said that he was working with you, and there it was. We looked at Metzger’s entire manifesto, and I tried to summarize certain things, which you then took from there. Could you talk a little bit about your background and life as an artist?
Justin Richburg: Sure, I grew up in north Philadelphia. I always drew, but it wasn’t something anyone encouraged me to do. It was just something that I did. Then, when I was eighteen, I had a mental health scare and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Those years of my life were taken away, eighteen to twenty-one. They went by in a blur. When I finally woke up, mentally, I found myself over three-hundred pounds. Apparently I had been drawing the whole time. It must have been one of the things that brought me back and helped integrate myself back into society. One day, a family friend paid me $100 to make something for them. I was like, “Oh, you can make money in this?” That’s really how it started. Somebody giving me $100.
“One day, a family friend paid me $100 to make something for them. I was like, “Oh, you can make money in this?” That's really how it started. Somebody giving me $100.”
KF: How did you go from that to working with people like Childish Gambino?
JR: I had done this video where I had Black people from throughout history rolling dice together. And I just put it out there online. This was when my mind was still in the process of coming back. My humor was coming back, the quirky things I would do for a reaction.
Once it went out into the world, Charlamagne tha God was the first celebrity to share it. I was in the barbershop when I got an email from Donald Glover’s people. I thought it was fake at first, so I ignored it. They wanted it to be on one of the episodes of his show Atlanta. Then his manager hit me up to work on the video, and so I did the character designs for it. They hired animators from overseas to do the animation, but they didn’t understand Black culture, so I basically gave them the vibe on how everything should look and all that.
That led me to doing something for Google Arts, and music videos for musicians Jhene Aiko and Trey Songz. I also did an interview with the BBC and Billboard Magazine. I was also on the Breakfast Club and created NFTs for them. It was a lot. Everything that I do is through trial and error and seeing how things react. I think, “Okay. I got a reaction from this. What happens if I build upon this?”
KF: That brings us to the proposition I gave you a few months ago to look at what Gustav Metzger wrote back in the ’90s and create an animation. So can you talk a little bit about what the process was? Because you’ve created an incredible four-minute animation out of something that’s pretty dense.
JR: It was hard, because I didn’t know anything about him at first. I had to research to understand what I was doing so it could come off authentic. People really don’t understand how hard it is to build animation from looking at words.
“Everything that I do is through trial and error and seeing how things react. I think, 'Okay. I got a reaction from this. What happens if I build upon this?'”
KF: And how did you decide the kind of style? There’s a lot of different scenes and scenarios that go on. How did that all come about?
JR: I think things like this can easily become like, “Oh, I’m being preached to.” Nobody likes being preached to. So I try to look at it from an entertainment standpoint. I’ve always had a love for anime and The Boondocks. That’s really where the style came from—from the stuff I love. I was going for a balance between lighthearted and serious.
KF: What are you most satisfied with in the animation? And what was the hardest thing to work out?
JR: To be honest with you, I never enjoy the process. I enjoy seeing the end result. I had some amazing people help me with this, my bro Apollo and Clove. And my friend Ace, he did the voices for me. The thing that made me most proud is having my team come together and help me bring this to life, literally.
KF: Right. From nothing. From words.
JR: From nothing. From writing it out on the phone, doing little quick sketches and then showing them a storyboard where “You do this, this, this. I do this, this, this.” And then it comes out, boom. It’s amazing.
“People really don’t understand how hard it is to build animation from looking at words.”
KF: How did you decide what the words were going to be?
JR: It was mostly about sitting with videos and artworks of Metzger. But some of the words came to me when I was asleep, and Netflix was on. Back to the Future happened to come on randomly, and when I woke up in the middle of the night I was like, “Oh, time travel.” And I started coming up with stuff to write. That’s what I like about being an artist. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
KF: Does this project feel different from others you’ve worked on?
JR: It was a challenge, because I mainly do things with Black culture. If this was a few years ago, when my mind as a director was still developing, I wouldn’t have had the confidence. I really hope that people enjoy it, and take to the message that things can get messed up, but can always be bright and prosperous in the end. That’s why I ended the video like that—nothing’s ever perfect, but as long as people work together, we can strike a balance.
KF: I think that’s such a great message, and something Metzger really believed in with the life that he had and where it ended. It’s like he really wants his message to go forward. That’s what’s so fantastic.
JR: I relate to him in that way. You want to leave an impact. He made enough of an impact on me, just getting me in the mode to believe, “Okay. I can do something with this.”
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Justin Richburg is a Philadelphia-based artist who has established his own brand with his innovative animation, garnering millions of views on his YouTube channel “The Collective Animation.” Humble, eccentric, winning yet ever-hungry: These are some of the traits of Justin Richburg, the controversial and distinguishably artistic illustrator hailing from “Norf Philly.”
Kate Fowle is Curatorial Senior Director at Hauser & Wirth. Previously, she has served as director of MoMA PS1, chief curator and artistic director of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and executive director of the New York-based Independent Curators International.
“Gustav Metzger. And Then Came the Environment” is on view at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles from 13 September 2024 through 5 January 2025.
Gustav Metzger: Interviews with Hans Ulrich Obrist is available to purchase from Hauser & Wirth Publishers.