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| In Detroit ‘ruin porn’ ignores the voices of those who still call the city home | In Detroit ‘ruin porn’ ignores the voices of those who still call the city home |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| On the surface, Detroit can be summed up in one image: an abandoned and gutted home. Detroit is one of the most photographed cities in the world and the general narrative is of ruin, abandonment and decay. | On the surface, Detroit can be summed up in one image: an abandoned and gutted home. Detroit is one of the most photographed cities in the world and the general narrative is of ruin, abandonment and decay. |
| Such shocking photographs amount to “ruin porn” and only serve to obscure the humanity and the complexity behind the city’s long struggle and reduce Detroit to its ruins. | Such shocking photographs amount to “ruin porn” and only serve to obscure the humanity and the complexity behind the city’s long struggle and reduce Detroit to its ruins. |
| We believe that Detroit’s experiences with capitalism, racism and political fragmentation make it an important place to study and understand. Art can play a role in this. But the challenge for those who have an interest in Detroit is to turn curiosity into something which contributes to both the people of the city and a sophisticated understanding of its history and challenges. | |
| Related: Ghost town: heroes of the golden age haunt modern Detroit – in pictures | Related: Ghost town: heroes of the golden age haunt modern Detroit – in pictures |
| A recent art project by Berlin and Naples-based artist Ryan Mendoza contributes to this simplistic story of the city. With the help of crowdfunding, Mendoza has purchased an empty Detroit house, shipped it across the Atlantic and reassembled it as part of the Rotterdam Art Fair. It will eventually find a permanent home at the Verbeke Foundation in Belgium. With such visually powerful images, the message is clear: Detroit is an empty city. | A recent art project by Berlin and Naples-based artist Ryan Mendoza contributes to this simplistic story of the city. With the help of crowdfunding, Mendoza has purchased an empty Detroit house, shipped it across the Atlantic and reassembled it as part of the Rotterdam Art Fair. It will eventually find a permanent home at the Verbeke Foundation in Belgium. With such visually powerful images, the message is clear: Detroit is an empty city. |
| Once one of the most prosperous places in the world, Detroit is now a city in crisis. But it is not empty. If it was transported to the UK, it would be the country’s fourth most populous city, after London and Birmingham and between Leeds and Glasgow. | Once one of the most prosperous places in the world, Detroit is now a city in crisis. But it is not empty. If it was transported to the UK, it would be the country’s fourth most populous city, after London and Birmingham and between Leeds and Glasgow. |
| More than 60,000 properties are set for tax-foreclosure and eviction within Detroit and 40,000 of these are occupied, the vast majority by black families. A staggering 10% of Detroit’s population are at risk of losing their homes this year alone. This is a crisis of refugee proportions. | More than 60,000 properties are set for tax-foreclosure and eviction within Detroit and 40,000 of these are occupied, the vast majority by black families. A staggering 10% of Detroit’s population are at risk of losing their homes this year alone. This is a crisis of refugee proportions. |
| Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the US, yet is surrounded by some of the wealthiest zip codes in the country. In the suburb of Bloomfield Hills, the household income is more than $125,000 (£110,485) per year. In Detroit, 40% of residents live below the poverty line, the highest percentage of any major city in the country. | Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the US, yet is surrounded by some of the wealthiest zip codes in the country. In the suburb of Bloomfield Hills, the household income is more than $125,000 (£110,485) per year. In Detroit, 40% of residents live below the poverty line, the highest percentage of any major city in the country. |
| Famous ruins such as the Packard Plant are the result of an exodus of jobs on an unprecedented scale. George Galster, of Wayne State University has shown that in every 20-year period since the end of the the second world war, the city has lost half its manufacturing jobs. | Famous ruins such as the Packard Plant are the result of an exodus of jobs on an unprecedented scale. George Galster, of Wayne State University has shown that in every 20-year period since the end of the the second world war, the city has lost half its manufacturing jobs. |
| It is ruins such as the Packard Plant that get photographed, or turned into objets d’art suitable for a Sunday stroll-through at an art fair. Collectively, the glossy photobooks, websites and art projects all serve to produce and reinforce a simplistic narrative of Detroit as a blank slate, in need of white, middle-class saviors. | It is ruins such as the Packard Plant that get photographed, or turned into objets d’art suitable for a Sunday stroll-through at an art fair. Collectively, the glossy photobooks, websites and art projects all serve to produce and reinforce a simplistic narrative of Detroit as a blank slate, in need of white, middle-class saviors. |
| As far back as the 1950s Detroit was losing tens of thousands of residents due to housing and transportation policy that prioritised the suburbs over the city and whites over blacks. | As far back as the 1950s Detroit was losing tens of thousands of residents due to housing and transportation policy that prioritised the suburbs over the city and whites over blacks. |
| When people moved out of Detroit they often didn’t go far. While Detroit’s population has declined by more than half since its peak in 1950, most of those leaving the city simply relocated to the ever-growing suburbs. | When people moved out of Detroit they often didn’t go far. While Detroit’s population has declined by more than half since its peak in 1950, most of those leaving the city simply relocated to the ever-growing suburbs. |
| It has been largely whites who have fled the city. Many left because of racist prejudices towards an increasingly African American city. While middle-class whites were incentivised into the suburbs, blacks, who represent about 83% of Detroit now, were intentionally kept out in a myriad of ways, legally as well as through violence and intimidation. The Detroit metro area is currently the most racially segregated in the US. | It has been largely whites who have fled the city. Many left because of racist prejudices towards an increasingly African American city. While middle-class whites were incentivised into the suburbs, blacks, who represent about 83% of Detroit now, were intentionally kept out in a myriad of ways, legally as well as through violence and intimidation. The Detroit metro area is currently the most racially segregated in the US. |
| Related: Detroit's gentrification won't give poor citizens reliable public services | Related: Detroit's gentrification won't give poor citizens reliable public services |
| ”Ruin porn” is based purely on aesthetics and is almost always devoid of people. Employing the mismatched spoils of history, ruin porn ignores and overwrites the voices of those who still call Detroit home. When its ruins are fetishised as art, these injustices are, at best, ignored, and, at worst, mimicked. They ignore the humanity of residents’ current struggles, while replicating the history that created them. | |
| There is a distinct neo-colonialist streak to these projects. Under the guise of “saving” history or the city, as Mendoza suggests, images and materials are mined from it. Like the resource extraction in other places, this mining leaves residents with little benefit. The ruins are gazed upon for amusement, gratification and pleasure. While they may purport to show the city, they are incapable of contextualizing more than sixty years of capital extraction and de-facto apartheid. | There is a distinct neo-colonialist streak to these projects. Under the guise of “saving” history or the city, as Mendoza suggests, images and materials are mined from it. Like the resource extraction in other places, this mining leaves residents with little benefit. The ruins are gazed upon for amusement, gratification and pleasure. While they may purport to show the city, they are incapable of contextualizing more than sixty years of capital extraction and de-facto apartheid. |
| Those who depict the ruins in such a way are able to escape after their photos are taken. They are often wealthier or more professionally prominent than when they arrived. Stripped of its natural and human resources by the barons of the auto industry and the ravages of racism, Detroit is now being stripped of its cultural ones by opportunistic projects that seek to profit from its suffering. | Those who depict the ruins in such a way are able to escape after their photos are taken. They are often wealthier or more professionally prominent than when they arrived. Stripped of its natural and human resources by the barons of the auto industry and the ravages of racism, Detroit is now being stripped of its cultural ones by opportunistic projects that seek to profit from its suffering. |
| We must ask: what do we learn by viewing an abandoned house dissociated from its context? It does little to challenge us to think differently about the people within Detroit and their struggle for dignity, safety and economic decency, nor does it explain how these ruins are produced. | We must ask: what do we learn by viewing an abandoned house dissociated from its context? It does little to challenge us to think differently about the people within Detroit and their struggle for dignity, safety and economic decency, nor does it explain how these ruins are produced. |
| Without new approaches, Detroit will continue to be a place from which much is extracted. This will further impoverish not only Detroit itself, but also the global understanding of capital, race, history, and our relationship to one another as global citizens. | Without new approaches, Detroit will continue to be a place from which much is extracted. This will further impoverish not only Detroit itself, but also the global understanding of capital, race, history, and our relationship to one another as global citizens. |
| Brian Doucet is a senior lecturer at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and Drew Philp is an author and journalist. | |
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