Fabian Theater, Patterson, New JerseyThere's an echo of Flint in the work of French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, even though Detroit is the closest they've come to the birthplace of General Motors. Their photos, which are on display at New York's Point of View Gallery, are simultaneously beautiful and depressing.
But the press these two get often borders on the gleeful. It's not the photographers' fault, but I wonder why more critics don't recognize the underlying tragedy of these photographs.
Case in point: Mary Logan Barmeyer at Papermag, who makes some big assumptions about what her audience will feel, believe and love.
"We all love an abandoned, decrepit old building -- beautiful, nostalgic, romantic, melancholic, completely spooky and full of ghosts -- and that's the subject of this photo exhibit by the French duo Marchand and Meffre. The two urban archaeologists have been traveling much of Europe and the U.S. for the vanishing evidence of the "genocide architectural," photographing concert halls with the seats ripped out, majestic rooms with pianos overturned, industrial buildings gone rusty, sturdy buildings reduced to tangles of steel beams, and witchy castle-like residences with windows boarded up and turrets caving in. While you may not see ghosts, we're guessing you'll get the chills."
Hildebrand'sche Muhlen Halle
William Livingston House, Detroit
We treat these buildings like so much else in our Country. Something beautiful, like the coastline and dunes here in Michigan are raped and mutilated everyday to put up McMansions. Flatlanders come in, and the 1st operational order is to destroy all the native flora and bring in non-native species, sod, etc. that are force fed petrol. based fertilizers and bug dope that succeed only in poisoning the fauna, and water. We build monuments to our egos, then let them rot, for the most part. We as a species, have been fouling our nest far too long. While it's true that a small portion of the population have been trying their damndest to alter our destinies by re-inventing urban farming and eco-housing, how much "progress' have we made? jet-skis are more abundant than ever,(and they dump more gas in the water than the Dupont St. bus ever could!), big shiney SUV's still are the order of the day for the richest, etc..If we don't change our Selves, Mother Earth will do it for us, and Roaches and Ants will be the dominant species...
ReplyDeleteYikes, bustdup! Don't use the words McMansions and raped and mutilated in the same sentence out here where I live (aka McMansion Alley on oceanfront)!
ReplyDeleteI agree totally. That house in Detroit - what a bloody shame.
Doesn't it fit?? isn't that what is actually happening? rapine, pillaging and pirating. look what's happening down in Muskegon right now, for example. Sorry Gillian, it really makes my blood and Celtic Fhianna tendencies rise...I pray that Your area is spared, or at least controlled better.
ReplyDeleteNo, bustdup, it is not controlled better here. It's rampant. No need to apologize to me! It makes me furious, too.
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