DETROIT FOCUS QUARTERLY Volume 6 Number 3 Fall 1987 ___________________A Visual Arts Publication Photo: Lucy Bates 0 e t r oi1 1 (see page 6). Art in the Stations by Dolores S. Slowinski When the People Mover was proposed, most of us were skeptical We also complained that it obstructed many of the remaining plea­ of its value and critical of its impact on the downtown area. Detroit, sant pedestrian vistas of downtown; that it would leave even fewer after all, is neither Disney World nor Epcot Center both of which are people on the streets. Not many of us anticipated that it would not carefully planned and administered fantasy communities. As only be popular but would also contribute to public art in Detroit. Detroiters, we live here; we are not merely vacationers looking for Irene Walt, the Duchess of Public Art in Detroit, who successfully diversion. We feared that whatever the cost, we would have to live conducted a campaign to incorporate art into the recuperative envi­ with the project even if it failed. ronment of Detroit Receiving Hospital, similarly proposed and ex­ Originally intended to be the baseline for an extended mass trans­ ecuted the concept of putting art in the People Mover stations. She it system along Woodward Avenue, the People Mover was eventually approached the Southeast Michigan Transit Authority (SEMTA) with reduced to a 2.9-mile loop of downtown Detroit. Many of us com­ her idea for ‘‘Art in the Stations” in July, 1984. it took some con­ plained that is wasn’t long enough or would be a series of stations in vincing, but she was eventually able to assemble the Downtown Peo­ a decaying Detroit which would make disembarking a waste of time. ple Mover Art Commission. The 12 members of the Commission con- Detroit Focus Quarterly Detroit Focus Editor’s Note A Visual Arts Publication 743 Beaubien Detroit, Ml 48226 962-9025 This issue of the Detroit Focus Quarterly contains articles on the Wed .-Sat. 12-6 most public of the art events of summer and early fall of 1987: The opening of the much heralded People Mover stations and a guerilla- Staff style political/art event “ Demolished by Neglect.” Less immediately Publisher Gere Baskin visible, perhaps, was the departure for California of Ed Fella, whose Woody Miller prolific design work as a member of Detroit’s art community includes Editor Sandra Yolles the Focus Quarterly, and whose absence for a year inspired the arti­ Design Editor Gigi Boldon-Anderson cle in this issue. (Ed is teaching at Cal Arts in Valencia, California.) Editorial Board Doug Aikenhead Allie McGhee Several new galleries have opened within the last year, both in James Kirchner Gretchen Wilbert the Downtown Detroit vicinity and in the suburbs; one important MaryAnne Wilkinson Detroit gallery, the Feigenson, announced that it would close. The Sales Manager Jeanne Poulet new OMAP program was announced at the DIA, and after the initial Bookkeeper M ary Clark outburst of controversy, people waited to see how the exhibitions Typesetting & Printing Grigg Graphic Services would shape up. The first was opened in late November. There have been then, of late, some new winds in the Detroit art community: these include both a new editor and a new designer working on the Quarterly. We are open to suggestions from the readership about articles, Detroit Focus Quarterly is published four times interviews, and other areas of interest that you think we should ex­ per year (March, June, September, and December) by Detroit Focus, 743 plore, and welcome the ideas of artists, critics, and other interested Beaubien, Detroit, Michigan 48226. Copyright 1986. Contents in whole or observers of the art scene. part may not be reproduced without written permission. The opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the gallery. Address all correspondence to Detroit Focus Quarterly, c/o Detroit Focus Sandra Yolles Gallery, 743 Beaubien (third floor), Detroit, Ml 48226. Manuscripts must be Editor typed double spaced, and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Ad salespeople receive 20% commission. ►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- continued from page 1 sisted of volunteers representing the Michigan Council for the Arts, That, in a nutshell, is how it happened. Undoubtedly there were the Detroit Council for the Arts, the legal, administrative and artistic clashes of egos, politics and personalities which occurred at various communities in the city. The commission was given office space and times and in varying degrees of intensity during the three years it some funding for a part-time administrator to get started. Commis­ took to make “ Art in the Stations” a reality. Ideally, each party sion members, as well as architects from Mason and Johnson who should be sensitive to the others needs and all differences should be designed the stations, went to Buffalo, New York, to see the art in resolved in an atmosphere of sweetness and light. To wish that it the subway system and to glean as much as possible from Buffalo’s were so would be naive and it certainly would not be art-by-commit- experiences so as to avoid making similar mistakes. tee. The success of “ Art in the Stations,” or any public art, should Selection of the artists and their work was made by the Commis­ be judged by the ability of the artwork to rise above the committee sion. Attention was paid not only to the representation of women and process and stand up to criticism on its own. minorities, but also the balance of Michigan vs. out-of-state artists. “ Art in the Stations” consists of 15 works by as many artists in Previous experience in public commissions, use of resilient materials 13 stations. The works are rendered in various media: one work in as well as quality of work, were key factors in making choices. Lists neon light, one drawing in baked enamel, one painting on alucobond, of artists names were solicited from the MCA, the DCA, members of two works in bronze, two in mosaic and eight in ceramic tile. the Commission and other sources. Two hundred artists were finally Stephen Antonakos’Neon for Greektown Station was scheduled invited to submit slides of their work for consideration. The slide jury for completion by late September, 1987. It is the only work on the ex­ yielded 15 artists who were then invited to see the scale models of terior of a station. Antonakos’ most successful pieces are simple the 13 stations. The artists, for the most part, were able to select the linear compositions which utilize their own shapes, as well as their stations and walls of their choice. They then submitted maquettes of haloes of light to decorate and illuminate an area. It may seem natural the proposed works to the Commission. to have selected his work for Greektown, but it remains to be seen if After approving the proposals, the Commission set to work to the neon sculpture can hold its own in a location already gagging on raise $2-million dollars to cover the total expenses of “ Art in the Sta­ a profusion of neon outlines of flaming cheese and OPA! tions.” Private funding came in the form of sponsorship of individual Think of Glen Michaels and you think of richly textured/colored artists and stations. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded mosaics done in high relief.Beaubien Passage in the Bricktown Sta­ the Commission a grant for Joyce Kozloff’s work. The Michigan tion is a drastic departure from his more familiar style. It is a drawing Council for the Arts awarded individual artists grants to Alvin Loving on thirty-one fired porcelain enamel panels each measuring 45" x and Allie McGhee, both painters, to learn to work in clay for the pur­ 37". Although it has the immediacy of a magic maker drawing of an pose of executing their pieces. Pewabic Pottery got involved in the abstract aerial view of a cityscape with intertwined accents of red work in four of the stations. Cranbrook Academy of Art as well as and yellow, it functions more like a caricature of what might have several private industrial ceramic and materials companies partici­ been. pated in fabricating and installing various other works. Visual inaccessibility adds to the disappointment of the piece. 2 Kirk Newman’s On the Move leaps up the escalator at the Michigan Avenue Station. Photo: Keith Piaseczny You can look up and see the right-hand side of the drawing as youcommuter waiting for the next People Mover car to arrive at the Grand enter the station; you can see the left side by stepping back on theCircus Station while reading theThe Detroit News with theDetroit landing at the top of the escalator. To see the 60 to 70 feet of the mid­Free Press folded on top of his suitcase beside him. The diminutive section clearly, you would have to shrink to the size of a spider and stature of this polychromed, life-size, cast bronze figure and its scale the opposite wall above the stairs. Drawings and sketches, by placement to one side of this Grand Circus station platform make it their nature, require an intimacy of viewing. Enlarge them to fill a easy to overlook. The token personalization for Detroit, with the two void and you may prefer the emptiness. newspapers, make it appear to be a monument to News/Freethe Charles McGee has always been comfortable with the human Press joint operating agreement. figure. InThe Blue Nile, a 12' x 17' painting on four panels of aluco- Kirk Newman of Kalamazoo also creates realistic bronze figures.