Yesterday the wind was howling through downtown Windsor and the snow was fading the Detroit skyline in and out. There were few pedestrians to break either, and though it was a Saturday afternoon in a metropolitan area of 250,000 (or 5 million if you count Detroit), the streets were characteristically empty. A warm and quiet refuge downtown is the Art Gallery of Windsor located in a huge newish building built with casino money (the gallery relocated — successfully — to the old Marks and Spencer store in The Mall for a number of years in the 90s while the temporary casino took over the old gallery building as their fantastically ugly permanent home was being built).
The AGW is a gem and there’s always something good to see, and never a crowd blocking the view. Currently one of their exhibitions is the first Windsor Biennial, where a selection of local artists (local includes Detroit) were commissioned to create new works. A few of them had some urban and map themes. My favorite was The Map is not the Territory is not the Map by Mike Richison of Detroit. He silk screened a hand drawn 360 degree overlapping panorama of the Windsor/Detroit skyline on a few hundred feet of automotive airbag cloth that snaked along the exterior windows of the gallery, up stairs and around walls. With the real thing right behind to compare with, it was a neat project. The overlapping was great — the two cities are mixed up and intertwined — though Windsor pays a lot more attention to Detroit than it does Windsor.
The airbag cloth is its subtle genius, as both these cities exist because of cars, and the long up and down (and down, and down, and down) history of the auto industry is a defining narrative here. Back out in the wind on the empty streets by the empty lots — cleared for development in the 1980s that never came — I started to get maudlin and wonder what airbag will save Windsor as it crashes this time. Something, I hope, soon. It’s still a good hometown, full of good people, but hard to visit sometimes. The Biennial runs until July 15, so stop by if you’re passing through Windsor.
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Windsor sounds like a neat place, and Detroit does as well. We are heading that way for DEMF, which has been one of the many efforts to revive the area. Same with the Detroit Dream Temple.
I hear they are trying to get Capture the Flag going in Windsor… 😉
Kevin> It is a neat place and figuring out where I came from will be a lifelong project.
We went to the first or second DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) — it rained and rained, then the moon came out and Jaun Atkins played the concrete bowl and it was magic. DEMF is interesting because Detroit’s massive techno scene was never officially recognized for years, even though kids in Tokyo and Manchester would hear the word Detroit and know it, but not because of Motown. It was, officially, a thing to bust (parties). But then by the 2nd DEMF the city realized a million people came to the first one — something that doesn’t happen in Detroit — and then Ford sponsored it. And now it’s a sanctioned, institutionalized thing. I haven’t been back to DEMF since that first time, but mostly because I don’t so much like big outdoor festivals (always squished, have to fight for position, etc).
If you’re interested in talking to people in Windsor who do “events” check out these two, who were also part of the biennial:
http://www.myspace.com/andrewnandrea
Shawn, thanks for the kind words and insight. When I de-install the piece, I’d like you to have a section of it. email me and we’ll set something up.