Our courtship exhibition ended up being a delightful meet-and-greet. Because of the heat, it took place for the most part in the kitchen and on the porch, with courageous dashes up the stairs to check out some gorgeous art.
One room, which we like to call, "the glacier room," contained the work of eight photographers and painters...
The other room, deemed "the woods," contained some handmade "how to" books (which sent my teenaged cousin a-textin and a-blushin... who knew feminism could be so fun!), as well as photographs and an essay about the house where the exhibition was being held (which can be read in an upcoming issue of Michigan Quarterly Review). We also displayed a series of found and re-framed portraits from a Detroit dumpster...
While wandering around in the smothering heat, you could get to know the artists up close and personal. For example, Aisha's cousins! Including Suzanne, whose intricate pencil-drawings and elaborate murals have long decorated the homes of her relatives. Her contribution to the exhibit included a multi-media collaboration with another cousin, Rebecca, who has photographed extensively in Detroit and Italy.
Garrett's photographic documentation of both Detroit and Haiti added to the international breadth of the show. Though not a native Detroiter, he ended up moving to Detroit's Farnsworth Street after living at another artist's residence, the "Million Fishes" collective in San Fransisco.
Also chatting it up in the kitchen was Rachael, en route the Michigan Womyn's Festival. She makes books and other fancy objects out of Austin, in addition to running a design company, Redstart, which provides commercial and residential paint design (and may have inspired our flamboyant painting on the third floor).
If on the sunporch, you might run into the emmy-award winning filmmaker, New York Times freelance photographer and all-around-good guy, Stephen, who is currently working to create a photography institute on Detroit's Riverfront (here he is below, at the site). He was picking the brain of soon-to-be law student Heather, en route to Ann Arbor.
Rosie, a California native and post-card collector, moved to Detroit after taking a photographic road trip through the fifty states. She exhibited a few photographs in addition to the series of post cards she created on her own, fifty in all-- one for each state. She prefers living in Motor City, where "you get the sense that people pay attention," to her former home, New York City, which she describes as "a homing beacon for Type A personalities."
A few people not featured in the exhibit showed up as well. There was Kate, for example, another Farnsworth resident who teaches Detroit kids how to farm. The other Kate in attendance holds a monthly event above a bakery in Mexicantown called "Soup," which is a micro-fundraising initiative. Everybody brings five bucks for soup, and shares an idea they've come up with that relates to the arts. The person with the most popular idea is awarded all of the funds collected that evening.
Jero periodically spends his free time volunteering with a contingent of Detroit DIY/Handmade Detroit ("a loose collective for people who like to make stuff"). After meeting him at the exhibit, we found him at Eastern Market alongside a huge, colorful bus on loan from MIT called the "Fab Lab," which is currently making rounds in Detroit, in the attempt to de-mystify technology. He was helping some kids fiddle with wires that were somehow going to enable a speaker to amplify something (the kids got it much faster than I did).
While the art and learning were educational and all, the evening was most importantly a good time. An old friend made a two-hour treck from her farm to say hello, and three, kindly strangers left with well wishes and requests for more events in the future.
Not to worry!
There will be a literary reading this coming Wednesday... "Honeymoon in Detroit," in honor of our currently visiting friends, who are (to the dismay of all who hear it) ACTually spending their honeymoon in the Motor City. But hey! This place is waaay more romantic than people think.
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