An artist political display that sits in the front window of a New Jersey store has been called "outrageous," "racist" and even "pro-Trump."
The reactions to the provocative art piece displayed in the window of a boutique furniture store in Montclair are strong. The piece features brown-skinned baby dolls locked inside a cage with a Trump campaign sign as the backdrop.
"It's making you stop and it's making you think and it should make you feel a certain way," Crystal Smith said.
A viewer initially contacted News 4 mistakenly thinking the display celebrated the president's now-revised zero tolerance immigration policy.
"I don't think that is even remotely pro-Trump. I think it just shows how awful he's been to these poor children who have been forced into cages and ripped away from their parents," Kaelyn Kalas said.
Artist Amy Putman created this and other social art pieces on display inside the store, part of a show that begins Saturday.
"I wanted other people to be outraged as well. Visually, I want it to be a reminder of what's happening and I want it to a record of what happened," Putman said.
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A recent report found more than 500 migrant children separated from their guardians at the border had yet to be reunited two years later. President Trump defended his immigration policy this week's final presidential debate.
"They are so well taken care of. They're in facilities that are so clean," the president said. "Who built the cages? I'd love you to ask him that."
Trump referring to the cages built under the Obama administration, Something Joe Biden says he regrets and plans to rectify.
"We made a mistake. It took too long to get it right," Biden said.
Putman hopes her piece now front and center on a busy New Jersey street moves people to do more than feel.
"I want it to activate people and I want people to vote," Putman said.
The exhibit runs through November and Putman says 10 percent of the proceeds will go to each the Montclair Museum and the organization Gente Unida.
