Building Utopia
Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Olayami Dabls
Aaron Jones in collaboration with Waajeed
Asma Kazmi
Leila Nadir & Cary Peppermint (EcoArtTech)
Kambui Olujimi
Wesley Taylor and Complex Movements in collaboration with Siwatu-Salama Ra
Like many utopic projects before, Detroit is a site where entrepreneurs, investors, and artists have projected their desire to build a more perfect place. There is both a sense of earnest desire for communal benefit and can have an air of self-service.
Utopic visions can be problematic, produced from a myopic vantage point, where the vision of the individual or small group dominates over the population at large. Take, for example, the socialist visions of Modernist architects like Le Corbusier, who designed the Les Quartiers Modern Fruges outside of Bordeaux with the intent of mass-producing affordable spaces for factory workers. Stripped of historic decorative architectural conventions and disregarding popular taste, the potential workers/owner were expected to grow to see aesthetic impositions of the houses as beautiful for their visual, physical, and moral healthiness. After all, Corbusier insisted that ‘the design of cities are too important to be left to the citizens.’ The citizens however, buried the imposed minimalism in decoration that suited their own taste and needs.
We also see visions of utopia on a more personal scale. We design our domestic spaces to suit our ideals, we attempt to hone our mental states through meditation, and we sculpt our bodies through medicine, exercise and diet. In these small ways we might all be striving for utopias.
While some utopias are invested in the new and rooted in consumer culture others engage in repurposing and reinventing existing systems. The desire for utopia is not always negative, ideals are what move us to build a better world. Harmony is sought in a constructed environment through the coming together of disparate parts.
These artists explore issues surrounding the construction of utopia including the individual in relation to the whole, fabricated spaces and experiences, and the failure of designed systems.
This exhibition is organized by Detroit based artist Lauren Kalman and was supported by Ponyride in Detroit as an outreach program from Kalman’s Artist in Residence Award at Ponyride and Popps Packing through their artist residency program.
BUILDING UTOPIA SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
Special programming coinciding with the exhibitions will include two panel discussions featuring several of the exhibiting artists and members of the Detroit community. The panels will be held at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery prior to the receptions on Friday, October 19.
SESSION ONE: 10-11:30AM
Aaron Jones
Principal Architect, Detroit MI; Assistant Professor of Architecture, Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI; Co-Founder, Talking Dolls LLC, Detroit, MI
Asma Kazmi
Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley, CA
Ryan Standfest
Editor and Publisher, Rotland Press, Detroit, MI; Instructor, College of Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
Wesley Taylor
Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA; Visual Arts Lead, Complex Movements, Detroit, MI; Director and Co-Founder, Talking Dolls LLC, Detroit, MI; Co-Founder of Emergence Media, Detroit, MI
SESSION TWO: 12:30-2:00PM
Olayami Dabls
Artist; Founder, Director and Curator, Dabls MBAD African Bead Museum, Detroit, MI
Richard Newman
Co-Director, The Hinterlands, Detroit, MI; Owner and Co-Director, Play House, Detroit, MI
Christin Lee
Writer; Founder, Room Project, Detroit, MI
Faina Lerman and Graem Whyte
Founders and Directors, Popps Packing, Hamtramck, MI
Performance by visiting artist Kambui Olujimi. The performance was be held at WSU on Wednesday, November 14 at 6:30PM.
This performance is made possible with the help of Jonathan Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of Music, CFPCA, WSU, Detroit; and students from the art and music departments, WSU.