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. Consider its exhibitions and lectures (Coco Fusco, the intricate and bizarre relationship group of volunteers, the art critic and cultural scene. Pockets of remarkable Roman Signer, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, between the city and its suburbs, the historian Marsha Miro volunteering as activity percolate; some intersect, many Dana Schutz, Cai Guo-Qiang, Fred Wil scope of cultural activity, or the signifi acting director, and the stated mission: others do not. Goings-on are diverse son, to name a few), the fascination is cance of the Museum of Contemporary bring contemporary art consistently to and, while often parallel, occur in loca not mutual. Very few international art Art Detroit (MOCAD), opening there. MOCAD bookstore / Buchhandlung, design: Steven Mankouche, Abigail Murray. the city. Its initial exhibitions and pro tions so widely spread out that discov figures, in fact very few people at all, (ALL PHOTOS: MOCAD, DETROIT) gramming (particularly its music ering them can require serious, if not express interest in the city or take time LYNN CRAWFORD is a fiction writer. series) have been strong. Interdiscipli aggressive, inquisition. An apt analogy exploring its streets, venues, nooks, She edits MOCAD’s cultural arts journal, nary art is being imported, shown, is Georges Perec’s depiction of the fields, crannies. The artist Ingo Vetter, Detroit:. viewed, and is—perhaps above all— art of jigsaw-puzzling. Until a puzzler who came to Detroit as part of PARKETT 80 2007 180 181 MOCAD’S second show, “Shrinking lishing its existence. Most of the muse Wayne State University, College for dence between city and suburb, at confluence of violence, rupture, and Cities,” described feeling like “a visitor um ’s funding comes from local private Creadve Studies, Detroit Symphony Cranbrook Art Museum. On weekends ensuing white flight by making things to a city that knows no tourism .”3' Such donations (by individuals living in the Orchestra, the esteemed George a bus traveled between the two. characterized by a strong sense of phys- absence of outside attention con suburbs but with businesses in the city N’Namdi Gallery, whose focus is ab MOCAD’s third exhibition, “Stuff,” icality. Their works were structurally tributes to a sense of disconnect with or at least dependent on it), and while stract African American art, and the consisted of works from the collection complex, visually raw, and had an the contem porary art world. there is no single donor guaranteeing Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit of Burt Aaron, based in Detroit and intentional lack of refinement. Fre MOCAD is located in downtown the m useum ’s future, private donations (CAID). A few miles east is the Heidel Ann Arbor. This has provided, so far, quently, objects found on the streets Detroit, in a section of the city under have insured its funding up through its berg Project, several blocks of sculp the grandest vision of what is happen (board, nails, glass, wire) were woven going regeneration called Midtown. 1 second year, and allowed it to hire a ture and polka-dot covered houses ing in the current world of art. “Stuff’ into their constructions. Ellen Phelan, use the word regeneration cautiously; full-time director (this position is yet to (structures previously slated for demo included seventy-three artists (among Ann Mikolowski,Jim Châtelain, Michael there is no getting around Detroit’s be filled). The museum is working with lition by the city). W oodward continues them: Santiago Cucullu, Fernanda Luchs, and Gordon Newton are among impoverished conditions. It has alarm different foundations toward attaining twenty-five miles north out of the city Gomes, William J. O’Brien and Dike those to emerge from this movement. ingly high death rates, especially for longer-term financing. into Oakland County, through Fern- Blair). A large percentage of the work The late Sam Wagstaff, curator of young men, a significant homeless pop It is hard to get a sense of MOCAD dale (the location of many galleries), was made in the last decade. Themes Modern and Contemporary Art at the ulation, and a lack of real infrastructure, and its place in the Detroit landscape into wealthy suburbs such as Bloom within the show (imbalance, fluid units DIA from 1969-1972, was a significant such as solidly funded schools, depend without understanding some geogra field Hills, the site of Cranbrook Art of time, location and identity, shifting presence during this time, as he nur able transportation, and grocery stores. phy. The museum is on Woodward School and Museum. Detroit’s basket points of space, calcified positions of tured the talent he saw brewing in KATHLEEN LEWIS, CHOCOLATE CITY, Its future remains uncertain and is Avenue, just blocks from numerous ball team, The Pistons, play at The power) parallel much of what occurs in Detroit studios. Such involvement was VANILLA SUBURBS, 2007 / SCHOKO- dependent on some flow of suburban vital arts institutions: The Detroit Insti Palace in Auburn Hills, a suburb even Detroit. The appearance of such jarring crucial in establishing the work’s pres LADEN-STADT, VANILLE-VORORTE. investment. While Detroit is one of the tute of Art (DIA), whose blockbuster further north while the city’s other works within the walls of an emerging ence in Detroit and elsewhere. In this poorest cities in the country, some of shows like “Camille Claudel and Rodin: three major sports teams-—-football, museum at this particular point in sense, Wagstaff functioned as Perec’s its suburbs are among the wealthiest. Fateful Encounter” and shows on Ansel baseball, hockey-—play in stadiums Detroit’s history endowed the presenta vital puzzle piece, a force able to har Even in MOCAD’s earliest stages Adams and Annie Leibovitz were downtown. There is no efficient public tion with a novel sort of resonance. ness activity in the cityscape and inte there was never a discussion of it exist extremely well attended, not to men transportation between the suburbs The fourth exhibition, “Words Fail grate it into a wider arena. We can ing outside of the city. It is the Detroit tion its renowned Diego Rivera murals. and the city. er city, but the emergencies I had in Me,” slated for fall 2007 and organized understand MOCAD—newly operating supporters, wherever they live and Also nearby: Charles H. W right Muse MOCAD’S first exhibition, “Medita mind are nonetheless global and not by Matthew Higgs, considers various as a hub, linking up various scenes and work, who have been essential in estab um of African American History, tions in an Emergency,” curated by strictly Detroit-centric.”41 uses and manifestations of language in institutions in and around the city—as Klaus Kertess, was a stunning success in The second exhibition, “Shrinking contemporary art. Higgs plans to have a project continuing, and updating, large part because Kertess and some of Cities,” responded to Detroit’s condi a strong theatrical component in the what Wagstaff began. JENNIFER BOLANDE, UNTITLED TOWERS, 1999, fiberglas, aluminum, lights/ the artists in the show developed a rela tions even more than the first. This staging (i.e. installation, lighting) of So what would that insubordinate TÜRME OHNE TITEL, Fiberglas, Aluminium, Lampen. tionship with Detroit and spent time three-year (2002-2005) cultural-art ini the work. Among the artists he will project be now? Cultivate curiosity exploring it. Three of the artists incor tiative of Germany’s General Cultural include: Martin Creed, Siobhan Lid from within and about Detroit in ways porated elements of the city in their Foundation began in Berlin; it was in dell, Jack Pierson, Annelise Coste, and that will launch the neglected city into work. John Pylypchuk used found the works before MOCAD even opened. Kay Rosen. There is already much dis a global arena that generates forms of materials in portions of his pieces. Nari The project examines what it calls cussion around this fourth exhibition engagement, dialogue, and exchange. Ward replicated an outdoor sculpture “urban shrinkage” in selected interna and speculation about the ways high 1) Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran by the artist Jack Ward (no relation) tional cities: Detroit, Manchester, profile curators, visiting from New York (New York: Random H ouse, 2004), p.

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