Taxis in Detroit: All A Board.

 

Art, as discussed in Monday's Post, helps our city's image. Fascinated eyes have difficulty wandering from the beauty of the Ultimate Sports Mural. The many intricacies are impressive. The colors of That Really Cool One on the Side of That one Building at Grand River and Brush is just as fun, with its many cascading colors, sucking in our attention from afar by looking like an enormous accident in Home Depot's "paint" section.

However, these are only two works of art, and the city is filled with art. If one thinks a building with color dripping down the side is impressive, then one must hang on to one's pants, because The Heidelberg Project will not only knock one's socks off, but probably one's pants as well. 

The Heidelberg Project, founded in 1986 by ambitious artist, art philosopher, and overall nice guy Tyree Guyton, began as an experiment. First, he polka-dotted his entire childhood house. From there, the project exploded. In fact, most of the art looks like it exploded. For example:

"Noah's Ark," as interpreted by the Heidelberg.

"Noah's Ark," pictured above, looks like an explosion of of teddy bears and color. If a truck full of stuffed animals collided with an old boat full of paint, this installation would be the aftermath. Nevertheless, it's cool to look at, and that is the important part of the Heidelberg; installations as eye candy. The explosion of art doesn't stop here. In fact, it keeps going for an entire street, and then some more. 

 One of my favorites, and I'm not sure why.

This piece, representing... ...time... ...or something like that, is an optical explosion of clocks. If a broken clock is right twice a day, then a painted clock should also be right twice a day. If this is the case, this house-of-clocks is right some 24 times a day. One may need no wrist watch at the Heidelberg. If he/she want one, Guyton, if available, will surely paint one on, making him/her a living installation. (That last line was complete speculation.) 

When asked what these paintings mean and how they are created, Guyton simply answers "I made them up." This seems to be the perfect explanation for the project: stuff, painted, broken, and set in a yard, becomes art. At first it seems silly, but when visited, the Heidelberg has a different effect. When I first walked down that polka-dotted road, I felt a sense of joy. The art is mostly old, painted junk, yet I couldn't help but smile and look around at everything like I was five years old. 

Photo-documentation of the polka-dot walk

I even got to pose with a friendly tin man looking installation.

Thanks for the photo Bryce.

For a brief moment, the touring class were enchanted by music from a broken, and, of course, painted piano.

Professor John Freeman and fellow student Jon Werber, jamming Heidelberg Style.

(By turning the camera sideways at 0:08 seconds, I've achieved a more artsy documentation of the brief jam session). I even saw my first taxi cab in Detroit! 

Plywood Taxis: the closest thing Detroit has to public transportation.

It is easy to see this art as merely junk. It can also be difficult to understand. But if we take a step backwards and out of our preconceived notions and egos, it becomes easy for us to see how wonderful the Heidelberg project really is. Sure, there are old tires hanging on metal posts and grocery carts stuck up in trees (which are actually fun to look at, and leave everyone wondering, how, and why, did those get up there?), but the project   means more than we can understand. The Heidelberg project as been described as a "shot of adrenaline" for the city. It gives people (and suburbanites like myself) something to come down and see; to experience and take part of; to feel like our city isn't just a rusty decay of hopelessness. By simply polka-dotting a house, and a road, and trees, and whatever Heidelberg participants feel like polka-dotting that day, they are reviving the image of the city. (Plus, what other city could get away with a polka-dotted neighborhood? Surely Chicago's Lincoln Park wouldn't allow it. It's a Detroit thing, and it is like a little mushroom trip, only without the drugs). Go see the Heidelberg for yourself, and experience the feeling that painted junk can evoke. Experience the joy that comes with simply walking down Heidelberg Street. The Heidelberg Project, Tyler Guyton, and the ideas and ideologies spawned from this creation are helping Rescue Detroit, one piece of painted junk after another.