Detroit's
been described in many ways, and here's a new one: The city
has an "atmosphere of departure," according to Eva Bracke, who
owns a gallery in the heart of Berlin's most popular
contemporary art district.
She's not
talking about a sense of panic floating in the air, spurring
Detroiters to pack their bags. She's referring to our
community's unconventional state of mind.
"It's really
fresh. It's like Berlin a few years ago, before it turned into
an art metropolis. Anything is possible and that's exciting."
In fact,
Bracke's been so intrigued by our mind-set, she's wanted to
collaborate for a while now. "You get more information about
the art scenes of New York, Los Angeles, Miami," she writes,
via e-mail. "But whenever I saw works at art fairs and
exhibitions, I found Detroit art very interesting."
Jef
Bourgeau's proposal came to her at the right time. The Museum
of New Art's Changing Cities: Berlin exhibit showcases
work by the emerging talents in Bracke's stable alongside that
of a dozen Detroiters. As part of Bourgeau's Changing
Cities project, the art will then ship to Bracke's gallery
in November for an exhibit.
Bracke is
devoted to a daring, defiant young set. In Changing Cities:
Berlin, Olivia Berckemeyer makes a portrait of Vladamir
Putin and his dog in pastel, wine and beer; and Christoph
Dettmeier blows up polystyrene castles to the tune of Nancy
Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)." Rooms are filled
with dashed-off drawings and paintings, including a lazy
general slumped in a rocking chair, Vikings rushing ashore, a
drunken crony with cherry-stained cheeks and a sadistic
butcher hacking off a pound from a pint-sized bombshell. In
Franziska Hufnagel's series of acrylics on paper, a Guantanamo
Bay detainee haunts the background of a watercolor of Madonna
and child. Andrew Gilbert's installation "The Fourth of July
was the Beginning of the End of the British Empire" features a
British soldier with a bayonet, and a cabbage for a head.
In the video
"Tortenschlacht" (pie fight), shot by young Belarusian wit
Alexej Koschkarow, bourgeois buffoonery reigns, recalling art
by satirist George Grosz and filmmaker Luis Buñuel. At a
cocktail party, elegant Europeans slouch around smoking,
barely holding their cigarettes, by tables lined with
desserts. A Muzak version of Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" is
the soundtrack. Out of nowhere, boom, pie in someone's face,
followed by a splatter of cream across a dress like a Pollock
painting. The hip crowd turns into a bunch of junior high kids
in a cafeteria. Time brakes to slow motion, and people duck,
bend and twirl as if dancing an improvisational ballet. Then
the camera pans out to reveal an audience in jeans and
jackets, casually standing behind a velvet rope, amused by the
Yves Klein-style performance piece.
"Tortenschlacht"
is about role-playing in life and in art. At a party,
spectators are also performers, scanning each other and
getting sized up, talking in symbols and codes. In this
instance, even the gallery-goers safely behind the velvet rope
take part as entertainers, unknowingly caught on camera by the
artist.
The art in
Changing Cities is constantly shifting from one style
to the next, with several dozen works in at least four
galleries, but in some way or another, the Germans and
Detroiters explore issues concerning identity, whether
personal or national. Mary Fortuna's puppets deal with a
crisis of their own. Her hand-stitched cast looks part animal,
part mythological creature, dangling between physical and
spiritual worlds without a landscape to inhabit, no place to
call home.
Detroiter
Cyrus Karimpour grapples at being a photographer during the
shift from darkroom to digital age. The artist snaps a digital
image of a crowd of figures who have been cut out from film
negatives. The antiquated format has been relegated to the
position of subject, a passive role rather than an active one.
At first
glance, it seems as if Kelly Frank is focused on, as she says,
"the pathetic and unspectatcular," but her charged images are
replete with self-reflection. For "Immunity Idol," a night
shot in the woods, she leaves footprints in the snow as if
she's signing a painting. In "Call," she draws concentric
curved lines like crop circles in the snow, alluding again to
the idea of authorship. Perhaps Frank's considering her
responsibility as a creator, asking for a response while
answering a "calling" by following her passion.
History and
the influence of place are also key issues affecting Detroit's
contemporary artists as they discover their creative
identities. You can't help but feel intensely what Marla
Karimpour's paintings mean to her. She's satisfying an urge to
step into her own landscapes and experience a life other than
her own. Her gorgeous Midwestern scenes are photo snapshots
reproduced as oil paintings — momentary glimpses that she
spends a lot of time carefully playing out.
Local artist
Jacque Liu's series not only symbolizes the indelible mark
that architecture makes on our collective psyche as
Detroiters, but also serves as a poetic visual metaphor for
memory. The artist draws a block or grid on paper and then
veils it with a sheet of Mylar, retracing only the outline of
the original shape, or some variation, on the top layer.
Looking at his drawings is like recalling a memory: Although
certain details recede, a sharp impression remains.
There's
definitive synergy going on in this show. Kelly Frank says she
was even a little surprised how strong a relationship she
developed with the Berlin artists when they visited for the
opening. Mary Fortuna agrees. "We hung out a lot, and took
them to Fort Wayne, Eastern Market, to CityFest and the
Heidelberg Project. They were in awe. We felt kind of guilty,"
she adds, "We didn't take them to any museums." Everyone's
excited about reconnecting in Berlin in November.
The whole
thing began last year as a quickie swap with Chicago art
consultant Paul Klein, just to get work from our region out of
city limits. But Changing Cities has turned into a
full-fledged international cultural exchange program. In fact,
right before this article went to print, Bourgeau reported
that Daimler Financial intends to sponsor the Detroiters'
visit to Germany, paying for flights overseas, the cost of
shipping and more. Company President Klaus Entenmann has
embraced the idea.
Bourgeau
says, "Klaus and his wife Katherin even threw a wonderful
Fourth of July picnic at their house for all the participating
artists. Klaus did all the cooking like a TV chef, intense and
fantastic."
Talk
about a departure.
The Changing Cities project,
runs through Aug. 9, at the Museum of New Art, 7 N. Saginaw,
Pontiac; 248-210-7560.
