  Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 7379 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Shrinking Cities exhibit will make its U.S. debut in Detroit February, 2007, co-sponsored by MOCAD and Cranbrook Art Museum. A bus will be available to take viewers to both venues. This collaborative venture presents, among other things, a unique opportunity to explore the multiple and often complex relationships between city and suburb. The German Federal Cultural Foundation is a major sponsor in bringing the exhibition to Detroit. For more on Shrinking Cities visit http://www.shrinkingcities.com http://www.mocadetroit.org/exh ibitions/shrinkingcities.html | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 349 Registered: 10-2006 |
Does anyone out there know if the Shrinking Cities exhibitors have published their book in English yet? I know it is in other languages and last I heard from Dan Pitera out at UDM, there is to be an English version. | ||
Mdoyle Member Username: Mdoyle Post Number: 32 Registered: 10-2006 |
Wayne State has a response show up right now at the elaine jacob gallery in old main on w.hancock. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 505 Registered: 12-2005 |
quote: 2005 Fertility Rates for selected countries (2.1 = the Replacement Rate, ie. parents have two children who will live to adulthood, thus replacing their parents) 7.4 Niger 7.4 Mali 6.7 Somalia 6.7 Afghanistan 6.6 Yemen ... ... ... 2.1 United States 2.0 New Zealand 1.9 Ireland 1.7 Australia 1.3 Germany, Austria and fifteen other European nations 1.2 Italy 1.2 Russia 1.1 Spain Countries with a constant 1.3 fertility rate will find their population cut in half within 35 years. A country like Spain will find their population halving with every generation. Who will be there to support the next generation of artists who like to unseriously celebrate things like "Shrinking Cities"? | ||
Spaceboykelly Member Username: Spaceboykelly Post Number: 203 Registered: 04-2005 |
Both volumes of the Shrinking Cities book are available in English [you can buy a copy at MOCAD when you see the show]. I've been to "Shrinking Citites? : WSU Responds" and I'm excited for the MOCAD/Cranbrook joint exhibition because I've been waiting for 3-4 years to see it. | ||
Wirt Member Username: Wirt Post Number: 45 Registered: 12-2005 |
I thought the exhibit at Cranbrook was interesting. There is a large amount of data and you need a lot of time to absorb everything. The opening lecture was also very worthwhile. I left the exhibit wanting to know more about several of the cities - I felt the whole story was not fairly depicted. There seemed to be an emphasis on the negative and not enough on the positive. I was fascinated with Liverpool and Manchester and want to learn more about their current situation. Detroit's depictions will probably leave the viewer with a one side doomsday vision - especially for the visitors to the exhibits in foreign countries. Detroit was treated, for the most part, as a city only and not a metro region, while all of the other cities featured could be considered entire metro areas in decline. | ||
Spaceboykelly Member Username: Spaceboykelly Post Number: 205 Registered: 04-2005 |
I have to agree with you Wirt. I liked a few of the Detroit works [for instance, Magic City was great], but I found the Detroit inspired artworks to be overly sensational for the most part. One of the five posters from Jeff Karolski's Devil's Night Poster Series' invitation to, "On OCTOBER 30th [to] COME WATCH A CITY SET FIRE TO ITSELF" was a little much for me. Especially for a digital poster series that was created in 2004, Devil's Night, what? The other cities/regions offered real glimpses into the life and problems of their respective areas. While many of the artists representing Detroit appear detached, ambivalent, or crass in regard to Detroit's people and problems... [death, destruction and poverty are sweet! well, they all can be sweet, in art - if properly executed. unfortunately that was not often the case]... artists like the [former] Liverpool native, Tom Wood, photographer of the Bus Odyssey series [only one of the images below is actually on view at "Shrinking Cities"] http://www.thomaserben.com/art ists/wood/img/23.jpg http://www.thomaserben.com/art ists/wood/img/19.jpg http://www.thomaserben.com/art ists/wood/img/15.jpg http://www.thomaserben.com/art ists/wood/show_2002/pictures/0 3.jpg and Tobias Zielony's Behind the Block series took me back to the "no-future, let's hang out at the gas station because there is nothing else" angst of my hometown. If the artists representing Detroit wanted to depict complete sensation and apocalypse they should have conducted an over-the-top performance art happening dressed as Robocops - it would have been more fitting. | ||
Tomoh Member Username: Tomoh Post Number: 283 Registered: 11-2004 |
I spent two hours at the MOCAD yesterday. The exhibit was very good. There was plenty of doom'n'gloom but there were also two very constructive and positive video presentations next to each other, one about the blotting phenomenon in Detroit and the other about new tools to use in researching and improving Detroit. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 1977 Registered: 10-2003 |
Bump...still lots of programs to come: http://www.cranbrookart.edu/mu seum/shrinkingcities_prog.html | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 554 Registered: 10-2006 |
Metro Times had an interesting editorial on the exhibit: http://metrotimes.com/editoria l/story.asp?id=10182 | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3699 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Metro Times article by Constance Budorow is a very well thought out and written critique - all the mice are talking about how bad the cat is, how it needs to be belled, but nobody is talking about how to put the bell on the cat. And now the picture drawn of the cat is outdated. quote:Our condition in Detroit is deep,vexing and changing. It takes more than a cursory glance by passing-through artists. The problem with any exhibition, especially such as shrinking cities, is that it becomes a static snapshot of the past and quickly becomes dated. I have looked into the same abyss of Detroit's situation for decades and quickly learned it was too big for one person to solve. That is why I created this forum - to host a body of discussion that flows along with change. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 563 Registered: 10-2006 |
Well said Lowell! It is difficult to apply static art to a city, especially Detroit! | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2109 Registered: 10-2003 |
Anybody attend any of the lectures/presentations? I went to MOCAD last Thursday and saw the their Shrinking Cities exhibit and attended the Architects program. Interesting stuff!! The Shrinking Cities exhibits are at MOCAD and Cranbrook through April 2. |
