Puzzling out Detroit
From America IN EVERY EDITION OF PARKETT, TWO CUMULUS CLOUDS, ONE FROM AMERICA, THE OTHER FROM EUROPE, FLOAT OUT TO AN INTERESTED PUBLIC. THEY CONVEY INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS, ASSESSMENTS, AND MEM ORABLE ENCOUNTERS—AS ENTIRELY PERSONAL PRESENTATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES. PUZZLING OUT DETROIT If, as Vladimir Nabokov says, curiosity is insubordination in its purest form, NARI WARD, WHITE FLIGHT TEA BAR, 2006, ceiling tiles, green tea, tables, seats, Styrofoam cups, thermoses / what does it mean that people are TEE BAR WEISSE FLUCHT, Deckenplatten, Grüntee, Tische, Sitze, Styropor-Becher, Thermoskannen. less curious than opinionated about Detroit?1' Views of the city tend to be strong, and categorized: Great (sports, MOCAD occupies a twenty-one thousand generating discussion around the spe tracks down that m aster piece, that link music, proximity to Canada, big-heart square-foot former auto dealership, cific issues facing the Detroit cultural between the other ones on the table, ed people, historic architecture); Bad which stood empty for decades. The community: diffusion and isolation. there is a condition of dispersion.2* (crime, cars, car companies, decay, space has been described as raw, bat Thanks to the auto industry, urban The area faces another problem: poverty, new architecture). Neither tered, cavernous, vagrant, generous, and suburban planning, spontaneous lack of steady global dialogue. While view is entirely untrue. At the same spare. The museum opened on a shoe and reckless development, Detroit is Detroit art institutions and galleries time, neither expresses a real sense of string budget to large crowds, in October deeply segregated, and not only along host well-attended contemporary art Detroit, its sprawling metro region, 2006, with a skeletal staff, a dedicated the lines of race and class.
[Show full text]