Detroit Contemporary
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd.

Detroit, MI 48208
(313) 898-4ART

www.detroitcontemporary.com
Thurs-Sun 12-6pm.

Nov 9-Dec 22, 2002.


Detroit Contemporary hosts the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit’s return to the art scene. This non-profit organization formed 24 years ago to “promote the essential link between contemporary arts and contemporary society”, but has been silent for the last decade. As the name LINK suggests, this rebirth celebrates the interweaving of not-only visual art, but music and performance as well. The exhibition is part one of the four part LINK series (for more information including the December 20th event: www.caidonline.org).


CAID and the LINK project are a great and much needed idea. Fostering connections between the various and diverse art communities in Detroit is an essential task. As a concept this is fabulous, as an art offering it comes out a bit mixed. It may be its own strength that prevents an overall visual success. Rather than being unique perspectives on a singular theme, the show comes across more like a sampler plate leaving viewers hungry for a larger taste for the individual artists’ work.





Charles McGee “Black Echo”





Sandra Cardew “World Under the Woods”


There is truly a diverse group of artists represented here: from the rhythmic line work of Charles McGee’s “Black Echo” and three-dimensional constructions of Mathew Breneau, all the way to the skateboarding imagery of AWOL and beautiful sculpture by Sandra Cardew. A lot of strong moments abound throughout, and two in particular stand out to represent the range of ideas constituting this event.





Jeffrey Abt “On the Prohibition of Images”


Jeffrey Abt’s “On the Prohibition of Images” is surely the most thought-provoking image in the show. Abt has taken an incredibly sharp, crisp, hyper-real photo of the back of a painting and framed this digital image as a piece of art. That description may not sound like much, but the image is visually stunning, in a way that the actual back of a painting would not be. After the viewer has figured out what is being depicted, the mind begins to attempt to unravel the meaning of the reversal we are confronted with. Art made from the underside, the meant to be unseen space of other artwork, raises questions about the nature of what we find pleasing. Long after seeing it this viewer at least, is still left pondering the philosophical and visual questions Abt raises.





Ian Clark making “Sound Links”


Musician Ian Clark created a truly inclusive event for participants at the show’s opening, which unfortunately probably means little to visitors on later days. Clark may have been the only one to take the theme of LINK quite literally and created a piece/performance both visual and audio. He recorded a favorite word or phrase of participants on a short strip of tape. He then joined the tape to itself into a single link that would then be linked together with the next contributor’s recording. Together all these voices created a chain of links. Clark’s idea represents well the aims of the LINK show of bringing together the many voices of the Detroit art community. (Perhaps with an attendant on hand to facilitate play of the loops, later visitors could also appreciate the thought that went into this piece.)


Bringing together a community is no easy task, and CAID has set the stage for making such an event possible. Check out this first new offering and look for more from them in the future.