I’ve been to Detroit twice now. The first time I spent one day there and ate Italian food, looked from my car at the extreme duality of aesthetic consistency, and walked along the River Walk while looking at Canada across the water. The second time, this past weekend, I stayed for four days and properly studied what is going on because it’s not obvious yet it’s not subtle but it is extremely unique. On one hand you have an abandoned city left by unemployed masses years ago. Chainlink fences lined up everywhere, demolished buildings, abandoned businesses, boarded windows, and litter. On the other hand you have the community that remains that is fighting in a very colorful, loud and dramatic way to keep Detroit in conversation with other cities in America. The kaleidoscope of emotions that I have felt in this one place will remain within the patchwork of my memories. Detroit is honest about its shortcomings. Detroit is not pretending to be anyone other than themselves. The areas of the city where gentrification is taking place make no sense compared to how people are accepting their surroundings everywhere else. Around every corner is a mural done by known artists as well as those who will forever gain no credit or a word for their masterpiece. Stories compound on these walls… and it all becomes OK.
Our economy is the basis of how we think of ourselves and Detroit brakes this wheel and dares to exist as a forgotten cog in a large machine perfectly fine and perfectly OK with covering up these perceived mistakes with color. The “danger” everything seems to exude, isn’t, and the more you explore, you eventually realize that the problem of fear towards others, specifically impoverished areas, starts deeply rooted inside you. The population lives in happily and peacefully more so than the world expects.
I think I will reserve Detroit as a place to visit often as I can, always exploring and seeking the colors, murals, and the stories. At the farmers market it was Flower Day, a yearly event where flower farms come together and have a huge sale on their colorful creations. At 7:30 in the morning families of all ethnicities classes and enthusiasm levels meandered towards this market with their wagons and their carts. I saw crowds with their arms full of flowers, walking to go plant beauty in their neighborhoods, whether neglected by the municipality or not. Whether we perceive it as exemplary or embarrassing, Detroit holds genuine people who aren’t pretending. At the market I saw a woman with a shirt that says Detroit is for Lovers and I couldn’t agree more with the idea that only those who believe, love, and trust in the future of their community could live in a place that to naked eye of the world, looks quite the opposite. Quite unloved… but that could not be further from the truth.
The best example of what I’m getting at is The Heidelberg Project, an ongoing installation by Tyree Guydon. The first time I visited Detroit I went to the MOCAD and saw a video installation and an exhibition about this project. Below are photos from that visit. I was overstimulated and didn’t grasp that I could visit the installation with a 10 minute car ride.
This second time I visited Detroit, I had it on my list, and oh boy was it such a cool experience.
Very brief, quite visceral. Violent in its presence on Heidelberg street, the colors are a mockery of abandonment, daring me to see beyond a neglected neighborhood into the feeling of it being perhaps, my own neighborhood.
From the website:
“In 1986, artist Tyree Guyton returned to Heidelberg, the street where he grew up on Detroit’s East Side, and found it in shambles, riddled with drugs and deepening poverty. Bruised by the loss of three brothers to the streets, Guyton was encouraged by his grandfather to pick up a paintbrush instead of a weapon and look for a solution.
Armed with a paintbrush, a broom and neighborhood children, Guyton and Grandpa began by cleaning up vacant lots on Heidelberg Street. From the refuse they collected, Guyton transformed the street into a massive art environment. Vacant lots literally became “lots of art” and abandoned houses became “gigantic art sculptures.” Guyton not only transformed vacant houses and lots, he integrated the street, sidewalks and trees into his mammoth installation and called the work, the Heidelberg Project (“HP”).”
Photos from the project, taken from my morning walk, below.
Edit: a friend informed me about the fires. How tragic and gross of someone to do that.
Also, for fun, a Detroit Mural Dump:
