polka dots and empty lots

if you ever visit detroit and you can only do one thing (just one!) you must go see the heidelberg project. It's a continually changing street art exhibit that turned urban decay into a critique and commentary of urban decay: it's origins, effects and emotions.

I hadn't been since last summer and as usual it had changed quite a lot. Also as usual, the artist (Tyree Guyton) was there working. I told him how I liked one of the new pieces ("Weapons of Mass Destruction") and he paused before saying "thanks". Only later did I find out that it's by another artist who lives on heidelberg street. I bet he gets that a lot. He then went to mow the foot-tall grass in a nearby empty field.

It takes some serious ambition and cojones to do what he's done over the past twenty years, fighting the city for most of that time. And I don't know that you'll find anything like it anywhere else. It's quintessentially D-troit: the contrast of the horrific and the beautiful. So that's why I say: if you're passing through, go see it. It's not easy to find but it's worth the hunt.

(more pics here. I have a penchant for the faces painted on scraps of board.)