Final Exhibition at MoCAD

The exhibition of my Home, Commons & Collective

 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit:

Since my projects were all centered around food, I served homemade French onion soup (topped with muenster and all!). I set up a coal grill outside as Part 2 of my communal bread toasting event, originally held on Noel Night, December 1st.

Detroit Methods began setting up installations this past Saturday and held the event Sunday from 11am-5pm. We had prepared for this final event so heavily throughout the past month. I couldn't believe how quickly the exhibition came and past. With the exception of the middle section entitled 'Final Exhibition', the above images were taken by me.

When I first found out that my class was to publicly exhibit at The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit it seemed to be this very illusive concept to me, and very intimidating. This was a real credible museum that has showcased many prestigious locally, nationally and internationally acclaimed artists in the past. All-in-all the event was very well received and the staff at MoCAD was impressed with the end results. All of the hard work we poured into our projects that addressed different issues currently facing the city of Detroit paid off during this final exhibition.

Upon arrival of the exhibition, the text below was presented to the public:

DETROIT METHODS

At Home, in the Commons

A collective map of the city is taped out on the floor serving as a stage for the presentation of student projects with responses and contributions by visitors. The everyday spaces of private domesticity and public urbanity are reconsidered with activities such as communal street bread baking, vacant building film projections, bedroom spirit conjuring, backyard feral cat accommodating, community garden water harvesting, urban meadow mowing, people shepherding, public gardening dialoging, mass transit monitoring and various forms of story telling.

The projects were developed during a Wayne State studio lead by visiting artist Fritz Haeg and WSU art faculty member Eric Troffkin - exploring the particularly innovative ways in which some contemporary artists are working in Detroit today, while developing student projects with similar strategies and approaches. Student projects by Leah DiPace, Julie Howells, Bianca Ibarlucea, Rebecca Love, Joseph Culver, Daniel Presley, William Sabbagh, Renee Sandoval and Jessica Wildman react to real issues the city is facing, involving food, transit, lighting, communications, parks and public spaces.

Type a story of your own experience at home or in the commons of Detroit, 

attach it to a brick, and locate it on the map.

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A few extras:

-A few mentioned that they enjoyed the playlist I created for our MoCAD event and asked about some of the artists - I created a shortened version on 8tracks.

-To read more in depth about our individual projects, visit our class blog at DetroitMethods.wordpress.com.

For the Love of Bread, Part II

Last weekend I held my communal event in Downtown Detroit and was beyond trilled with the turn out. In addition to all of my classmates and friends who came out to delight in the bread toasting, many passersby had happily joined as well. The act of gathering around a warm fire within the community is such a fundamental concept; and the fact that we were dipping our freshly toasted bread sticks into homemade rosemary, or cinnamon and sugar butter, made the evening that much more special.

If you came out last weekend and would like the opportunity to partake in part II of this event, join the rest of my class and I at our final class presentation and installation taking place tomorrow, December 9, 2012, from 11am - 5pm at MoCAD in Detroit.

For the Love of Bread

(image credit)
Join me tomorrow evening, during Detroit's annual Noel Night, 

to delight in freshly toasted bread twists!

P R E F A C E /

Looking back on a trip to Europe, I vividly remember residing at a small hostel situated alongside a cobblestone road and waking up the morning (or afternoon, was it?), following New Years Eve to find that breakfast would be served around a large communal table. At first, I found it a bit strange to have to literally break bread with a table full of people I barely knew, if at all. Especially memorable was the way the baguettes were passed around and broken off with bare hands, yet in a way it made me feel more connected with those around me. Not only did we share the bread, but also an array of cheeses, ripe avocado, jams and unsalted butter, which we salted anyway. I remember feeling more of a connection with these new strangers whose language I barely grasped than most friendly acquaintances I sat around a table with back home, where there was no need to share since we always had our own plate of individually ordered food. Let us allude to the former.

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and a few more links:

- view final proposal pdf, here

- check out our class blog

- watch: a video by tiger in a jar

(photo/recipe source)

Rouse The Senses

This past weekend I hosted an intimate gathering of some of my closest friends. Although the premiss of this dinner was a class project, it turned out to be more of an excuse to delight in an evening filled with locally grown homemade food, good company and an endless amount of shared stories and laugher. The dinner preparations were a bit hectic due to my car breaking down, and me cutting my finger with the new mandolin I purchased earlier that day, but all of this only resulted in everyone pitching in to help out, making the whole process a successful and collaborative effort.

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a few more links:

-the official kinfolk mag site

-dinner series video, philadelphia

-dinner series video, brooklyn

-recipe for the (vegetarian) 3-onion soup