The Detroit Diaries

[Savonarola]

I realize that in the past I may not have always presented the city of Detroit in the most favorable light.  There is more to the city than Kwame Kilpatrick and urban blight.  I thought I'd start this thread to show Detroit's culture, history and my own unbiased commentary on them.  Welcome to Detroit and:



Stop Snitchin 

[Savonarola]

Every year over the Memorial Day weekend the Detroit Electronic Music Festival is held in Hart Plaza.  From its founding in 2000 until 2004 it was a free festival; and the largest techno festival in the world.  Detroit has fallen on hard times and the city isn't able to support it as it once could; so now it costs $30 per day or $50 for the whole weekend to attend.

I had gone to the DEMF in its early years.  Then it was mostly DJs spinning records and homeless people asking for spare change; both were gone now.  Now the homeless have to wheedle outside the entrance and spinning records has become a heritage art form like square dancing.  Instead everyone played the Mac laptop.


Can't you just feel the excitement?  The crowd didn't seem to mind and they boogied on throughout the day.  The real show for the most part was the crowd.  There were women with micro skirts and purple hair, men with leather vests and Mohawks, girls wearing incredibly short shorts and leggings, and some guy had on a suit like the one worn by the gimp in Pulp Fiction, only neon green.  I saw all the rave jewelry as well, the plastic beads, pacifiers and bunny ears.

Off to the side of the main stage was a break dancing stage.  Some were impressive:



This girl had just done a back flip before getting on her hands and spinning around.  All the while the EMS technician stood watching over them and looking chagrined:



Eventually a break dance "Fight" broke out and the dancers formed rival groups trying to out dance each other:


Unfortunately there were too many people in the way and I couldn't truly capture the magic of the moment.  It was like being a cast second in Breaking 2: Electric Boogaloo; though none of the dancers were born when that movie came out.

Of course I didn't really go to see break dancers and people jamming the Mac laptop.  I was there to see Afrika Bambaataa, the godfather, grandfather, and Amen Ra of hip hop himself:



No, the Zulu Nation hasn't gotten a lot lighter since the '80s; the kid on the right is the previous DJ.  At the DEMF works sets go on continuously; they unplug one Mac and plug in the next; so DJs will spend a few minutes on the stage together.  Afrika Bambaataa took a little longer to set up since he had to get his turntables out; so the Zulu Nation came out and fired up the crowd.



Bam had some problems getting set up; so to kill time one rapped out an anti-corporation message, which might have been somewhat more convincing if we weren't watching this at the Red Bull Music Academy Stage.  Then they had the entire crowd chant "Burn Babylon," I thought it was nice to see someone support the efforts of the troops in Iraq on Memorial Day.

The show was awesome; it was 90 minutes of non stop funk.  The Zulu Nation rapped away and danced on stage to Afrika BamBaataa's beats.  There was his dance troupe, the Zulu Kings; by the look of them the same ones he had in the 80s:



They had break dancers come on; mostly the same ones as I had seen before.  Then they had girls come on stage and dance as well as they could in the cramped space:



The experience was overwhelming and ecstatic.  It had to be since Bam was trying to get kids out of gangs and into hip-hop.  It is remarkable that he could still keep it going twenty years later.

[Alcibiades]

Then they had the entire crowd chant "Burn Babylon," I thought it was nice to see someone support the efforts of the troops in Iraq on Memorial Day.

[The Brain]

I remember seeing Afrika Bambaataa on TV as a wee lad and the guy stuck in my mind (for whatever reason, probably the cool name, no I had seen black gentlemen before). He has sentimental value to me.

[charliebear]

I like the fact that behind Mr. Bam is the Detroit River, with Windsor, Ontario right across the river.  Weren't they chanting something about "no borders, no countries?"  The irony of that cracks me up.

[Savonarola]

Power to the People Mover:

In the middle of the 1970s Detroit got a major Federal grant to develop a regional transportation system.  Twelve years later we got The People Mover:



It looks like it's on the way to the neighborhood of make believe.  The People Mover was something of a flop as a regional system; since it goes all of 3 miles total in a little square.  You can walk from corner to corner of the square in about 15 minutes and you can almost always see the next station from the platform.  The system carries an average of 2500 people a day; about 15% of its intended capacity.  Rides cost fifty cents; it's estimated that each rider costs the system $3.

What the people mover lacks in use or profitability it more than makes up for in art.  Each of the 13 stations is decorated by a Michigan based artist.



The first station is Times Square Station which contains In Honor of W. Hawkins Ferry by Tom Phardel.  Phardel is a ceramic artist, mostly known for his sculptures.  W. Hawkins Ferry was a patron of the arts and an architectural historian who was instrumental in starting the art in the station project.  The tiles are from Detroit's most famous tile company, Pewabic Pottery.  Pewabic Pottery was founded in Detroit of 1903 at the height of arts and crafts movement.  Pewabic tiles typically have iridescent glaze; though usually they have a more subdued vegetable color than in the picture.  The pattern draws inspiration from the Art Deco designs which were popular in Pewabic designs from the 20s and 30s. 

The next station, Michigan Square Station has two works, first is The Voyage by Allie McGhee:



McGhee's paintings are influenced by telescopic and  microscopic images.  He learned tile making for this work and designed his tile to look like it was made with quick brush strokes.  In fact it was meticulously planned out, set and fired.

McGhee does most of his work in Metro Detroit; he lists the Wayne County Jail as one of his major commissions on his web site.  I found a review of some other works by his in Detroit's alternative newspaper, the Metro Times.  There is a certain style of prose which goes with art reviews, one that clearly I cannot replicate, but the Metro Times provides a marvelous example:

McGhee doesn't forget who he really is. Rather than fetishizing science, like some NASA groupie or biotech geek, he brings it into the fold, gives it a chair in the band – and the eye music that results is something like Stephen Hawking sitting in with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

To me the work looks like a number of geometric objects in bright colors; but maybe McGhee really brings a hip-hop dynamic and urban sensibility to the work while giving a nod to the mobility implicit in both public transport and the automotive capital of the United States.  In any event I prefer:



On the Move by Kirk Newman also at the Michigan Station.  Newman is a Kalamazoo based sculptor whose work is mostly running figures.  These bronzes are monumental; the one on the left is 23 feet long.  Newman's work is often satirical and this one is almost a cartoon study of motion.  Like most of his work it features people running to keep up, though I've never actually seen anyone run to catch the people mover. 

The next station, Fort and Cass, also has two works of art in it.  The first is a bronze on display at the station entrance:



Progression II by Sandra Jo Osip.  Osip's sculpture tends to ahve an environmental message along the lines of natural materials are used to create manufactured items which then ultimately become garbage.  She often works with trash (or "Found Material" if you must) to make these things.  These works, though, are  bronze and are supposed to be natures forms reinterpreted in an industrial environment.  To me they do look like manufactured sea shells with the flashing still on.  The other is:



Untitled by Farley Tobin.  Tobin is a ceramic artist who uses abstract geometric patterns in her work.  This piece is inspired by Islamic tile work; especially the black and red x patterns of the Taj Majal.   She used ash from Mount Saint Helens in some of the glazes.

The next station is Cobo Hall home (for the moment) of the North American International Auto Show:



The Cavalcade of Cars by Larry Ebel and Linda Cianciolo Scarlett; this is a mosaic made of tiny fragments of Venetian glass.  It's an amazing work that sparkles and shimmers in bright light; however it reminds me of a work I saw in a Chicago scrap yard.  I was on the El heading to Oak Park and saw the wall of a scrap yard painted The Virgin of Guadeloupe surrounded by six low riding muscle cars.

The next stop is Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings:



Voyage by Gerome Kamrowski; this is also a Venetian glass mural.  Kamrowski  is a surrealist painter who had works shown in the International Surrealist Exhibition of 1947 and had shows at MOMA and the Whitney Museum of Art.  The work is supposed to represent the night sky and the figures are based on the constellations.  Originally the primary color was going to be blue, but it was changed orange to match the color of the Joe station. 

The Joe Louis Arena station also features a Metropolis like view of the skyline of Detroit:



DETROIT, CITY OF TOMORROW!  I can almost imagine a little bi-plane flying by.

The next station is in the Financial District; unfortunately it's a little hard to get much of a shot of, especially with my cheap little camera:



D for Detroit by Joyce Kozloff.  Kozloff works with collages and combines images from different cultures or subjects in her work.  In this case it's a painted mural of Bulls, Bears (for the financial district) all arranged in a large D and surrounded by Aztec and Byzantine designs and Peacocks:



The Peacocks are a reference to the James McNeil Whistler wall painting for "The Peacock Room" which is now in the Freer Museum of Art in Washington DC, but for a time was located in Charles Lang Freer's home in Detroit.

The next station is the Millender Center.  It's work is Detroit New Morning by Alvin Loving Jr.:





Detroit New Morning by Alvin Loving Junior.  He's a painter best known for his hard edged geometric objects.  He made these tiles in partnership with Pewabic.  The design is supposed to be sunrise with silver lined clouds and rainbows; I like the metallic luster the work has. 

It was at the Millender Center Station that I was stopped by the police.  The People Mover carries only 2500 people per day and there are never more than a dozen on a train at the time.  I would think that law enforcement would recognize this is a low risk system for a terrorist attack; but in the post 9/11 world I would be wrong:



I saw three police officers in a single circuit on the train and I was questioned by two of them.  Fortunately I was able to convince them that I was taking pictures of art work and not plotting mayhem on the People Mover in order to inconvenience dozens of people.  The police did seem suspicious of my story; as well they should have.  Anyone taking pictures in Detroit of anything besides urban blight is behaving suspiciously.

The next stop was The Renaissance Center with The Siberian Ram:



This is done by Detroit's most famous sculptor, Marshall Fredericks and is surrounded by Pewabic tiles.  That green is a characteristic Pewabic color.  Fredericks made a number of statues for public spaces; everything from statues in shopping malls to the Cleveland War Memorial Fountain.  He even has his own museum; admittedly it's a museum at Saginaw Valley State University, but still that's more than most artists get.

Next is the Bricktown Station with Baubien Passage by Glen Michaels:



Michaels is a mixed media artist who usually puts objects on canvas in the fashion of a mosaic.  There are a series of long panels like this with a black and white drawing decorated with ribbon like yellow and red lines; it's supposed to look like a futuristic cityscape.

The next station is Greektown; the art is done by Stephen Antonakos, and is the only work to be displayed outside :



Antonakos is another mixed media artist; he works mostly in neon.  Antonakos was born in Greece and has works throughout that country.  It's appropriate to have his work in Greektown, not just because of his heritage, but also because Greektown is one of Detroit's few vibrant night spots; a place where one would expect to find neon.

The Next is Cadillac Center:



The work is called In Honour of Mary Chase Stratton by Diana Pancioli.  Mary Chase Stratton was the founder of Pewabic Pottery; all the tiles are Pewabic, and were fired in 1935 for a Stroh Brewery mural that was never installed.  They were held in storage until the 1980s when they were donated to Art in the Station group.  Diana Pancioli was then head of Pewabic Pottery, and had the tiles arranged like this so that they resemble an arcade at an old train station.  Also here is a bronze panel that depicts Madame de Cadillac landing in Detroit:



Detroit was founded in 1701 by Cadillac, but his wife didn't join him until about a year later.  To celebrate the bicentennial of her landing this plaque was commissioned and installed in the old Detroit Museum of Art in 1903.  Madame de Cadillac and Madame de Tonty were the first two white women to settle Detroit; and the idea behind the plaque was that with the civilizing influence of women Detroit changed from a trading post to a settlement.  Today this would be considered a racist view, since there were already women living in the fort, but in 1903 Wyandot women didn't count.

Next up is Broadway Center Station:



The Blue Nile by Charles McGee; this is the only painting in the People Mover Stations.   It's industrial enamel painted on alucabond.   Charles McGee has done a number of paintings on the subject of Noah's Ark.  This is one of those depicting man and animal together in a procession. 

Last station is Grand Circus Park:



This is a life sized bronze by Seward Johnson Jr.  Johnson has a lot of tromp l'oeil works of people engaged in everyday activity in public places.  Here the man is reading the Detroit News, but has the Free Press on his briefcase.  The sculpture is so well done that I've seen people come up touch it just to make sure it's a statue.

[Syt]

It looks like it's on the way to the neighborhood of make believe.  The People Mover was something of a flop as a regional system; since it goes all of 3 miles total in a little square.  You can walk from corner to corner of the square in about 15 minutes and you can almost always see the next station from the platform.  The system carries an average of 2500 people a day; about 15% of its intended capacity.  Rides cost fifty cents; it's estimated that each rider costs the system $3.

What's sad is that Vienna seriously considers something similar for connecting the subway to the South Railway Station which is currently being turned into a Grand Main Station.

Of course they had the chance in recent years to connect the subway DIRECTLY to the train station, but why do that when you can build a 30 million cable car for covering 300 meters? 

[KRonn]

Good stuff Sav.     Looks like it was a fun time.

[The Brain]

Cool art.

[jimmy olsen]

That's an awesome statue.

[Savonarola]

The Detroit Institute of Arts has a number of Auxiliary Support Societies for the various genres of art in its collection.  The societies are made up of very old people whose kids never call and who need an excuse to get out of the house.  I'll join one in 30 years, but for now I am only able to attend the lectures they put on.

The best one that I have seen was done by the Islamic Art Society who brought in a lecturer named "Peter Lu."  I would think that if that was your name then you'd have to get a PhD in British History and focus on the 19th century struggle for democracy, but this Peter Lu defied my expectations and got his PhD in physics with a focus on quasi-crystalline structures.  The work he has gotten him the most press has been an interdisciplinary study he did on geometric patterns found in medieval mosques.  When on vacation he noticed a pattern in the tiles that was similar to the crystalline structures he had studied.  Further research showed that this pattern was common throughout the medieval Islam world and he developed a theory which explained how mosques of the era could have intricate geometric patterns on the tile yet be done by ordinary craftsmen rather than mathematician.  The trick was that four large shapes were put together and then could be combined into a large number of patterns.  You can see him lecture on this topic here:

http://www.peterlu.org//content/decagonal-and-quasicrystalline-tilings-medieval-islamic-architecture

What really made his lecture great was the Q&A period at the end.  I have never seen anyone so adept at cutting off stupid questions; he must have dealt with humanities professors a great deal.

Last night's lecture was by Susan Larson on Charles Biederman.  The DIA has only one work by Biederman and it's almost never on display.  They had it out last night, it looks something like this:



The lecturer assured us it was a wonderful example of his work.  It well could be; the DIA's other tenuous connection with Biederman is that the museum president once begged him to bequest his studio to the DIA, but instead he gave it to the University of Minnesota. 

The lecturer had just written a book about Biederman and told us the story of his life.  He was an interesting character; he had come from a poor family in Cleveland, worked as a commercial artist, then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago where he flunked out for refusing to take a second year of art history taught by Helen Gardner (whose text "Art Throughout the Ages" is still a standard text in US Art History courses.)  He worked in Paris and New York as a young man, but his real success didn't come until later in life when he lived in Red Wing, Minnesota.  Biederman credited living in the Midwest with not only his art but with all American modernist art.  He argued that American modernist broke apart from European modernists by using colors and being influenced by shapes found in nature of the Midwest.  The first American modernists, according to Biederman, weren't painters, but architects like Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, who both used abstract designs directly inspired by nature.  It's an interesting theory, but I wish he had one that didn't make my part of the country culpable for any sort of modern art. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Power to the People Mover:

The last time I went to Detroit I recall there was a big hole in the line because of alterations being made to the Ren Cen.  Did that get fixed up?

[Savonarola]

Power to the People Mover:

The last time I went to Detroit I recall there was a big hole in the line because of alterations being made to the Ren Cen.  Did that get fixed up?

Was that after GM bought the building in the mid-90s?  Yes they've fixed it. 

One of the stops (Grand Circus Park) originally exited into the David Whitney building; but, in true Detroit fashion, the building has since been abandoned and you have to take narrow and steep stairs to the station.