HEIDELBURG PROJECT
We are the forces of our own destruction.
Our
very souls have become the ash
we
are supposed to rise from even as we burned
we
never realized that ash is matter changed,
rearranged
never again able to assume the form
of
what it once was a construction of our better nature.
Willing,
ever
willing to remove from view
that
which offends you
but
not me.
Kill
it, burn it,
persecute
it until it moves
to
someone else’s sphere of destruction
and
in the new view we have find
it’s
not greener grass we have created
only
a dry dead hole of devestation
not
only in the ground but in our soul.
We
are one and when one hurts
all
are in pain whether known
or
felt or not, no one cares;
they’d
rather pain and destruction
than
construction.
It
is after all only about the bottom line numbers
and
if any one portion of one refuses to surrender
in
moving from red to black then it must be destroyed.
God
need not damn us, we have damned ourselves.
©
M Durfee
12/9/13
Eighth blaze at Heidelberg Project destroys
Clock House << DETROIT NEWS article.
Almost every image in the video above is now destroyed.
Almost every image in the video above is now destroyed.
nice...i am a vedder fan....and yes, we are the forces of our own destruction, you'd have thought by now we would have wiped ourselves out, we'd rather pain and destruction than construction...sadly its true, and we deny the connection we all have...
ReplyDeleteSociety can live without me, and apparently art. You know they are trying to force the sale of 3300 pieces of city owned art to help pay the owed 18.5 billion dollars. When does culture end and barbarism begin Brian. I believe that Detroit has entered the line.
DeleteToo many images I can't handle.
ReplyDeleteTo much devastation and i can handle that another symbol of my home is nearly gone now. I'd be alright with it if Guyton was doing the burning but he weeps at every loss as he vows to continue the project.
DeleteI'm not a big fan of the kind of houses that are surrounded in junk for art's sake, but there's no way I'd back the burning of one.
ReplyDeleteAlice that seems to be the majority opinion of the suburbanites except they are cheering when they read another house is burned down. The thing is you call it a house surrounded in junk when i saw it, how it was used and repurposed to tell a story about a season of eras of this city it became more than junk, but art, in its most glorious definition. Art.
DeleteWait until a museum puts a brand on this house; then, it will be considered "installation", and with that will come sponsors and...
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, neighbors can only bemoan and cry out.
Rosaria although the DIA could not acquisition it, but they have always posted prominent directions to it from there. The major artistic sponsors and lovers of this place saw it for what it said in it's now destroyed diversity. This is a toen of many personalities the first being racial division with bricks thrown across the line by both sides and the second being nothing is valuable enough to stand in the way of profit. We here tend to destroy that which is our heritage. This town frew up in the art deco era and much of the architecture is of that time, we either tear it down or let it rot. (look up the Detroit Train Depot, which at one time rivaled grand central station for it's artistry).
DeleteI specially like the opening verses ~ The artistic statement is bold but sad to see those houses burn to the ground ~
ReplyDeleteGrace I had the pleasure of working with Tyree Guyton when he was doing a Detroit Institute of Art Michigan Artists exhibit. For two weeks we had a chance to talk and I gt to understand his vision and reasoning. I did not get to know him well but i did get to know the HP as it grew--I was there the day after one mayor tore down 4 houses. It would seem that after 30 years the city at least would have come to accept it as a vital a piece of art as The Joe Louis Fist (look that up) which one time two guys "having some fun threw white paint over it. Oddly enough white paint was appropriate because althoughby view it looks as if it is pointed at Canada in reality it is an expression of freedom because it is pointed south.. Few realize that though, same as the HP is an expression of Detroit by Detroiters.
DeleteBurn down the cornfield!
ReplyDeleteYep it seems that anything that feeds the soul of the people of this city has to be destroyed in order to try to cow us into something we have never been.
DeletePowerful. Hard to chew, but ....
ReplyDeleteALOHA to YOU
from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
=^..^= <3
We are used to eating ashed here Cloudia.
DeleteThis was so heartbreaking...those brave enough to create something out of so little and yet someone is still wanting to obliterate it. I'll never understand people's actions...not as long as I live.
ReplyDeleteKim, Detroit is a callous place and the vast majority with a true unemployment rate of 50% are more concerned with living. Yes this installation drew people from all over the world to view it, but two mayors destroyed 8 houses, now 8 more are burned which leaves 2. Detroit is in the midst of this bankruptcy also in the midst huge land grabs by two or three billionaires. This two block parcel can not be allowed to stand in the way of progress. That it could have been the centerpiece of whatever they have planned for it mystifies me. The Project is world acclaimed and no matter what anyone feels about found object turned to art seeing it in person will leave you with much imagery and food for thought about the real Detroit.
DeleteMark-I want to give that destructive, mean person a 'light' he will never forget. Hope they catch the person. Happy I was able to enjoy the Heidelberg many times. xo
ReplyDeleteHonestly Jodi I think you'd have to light the DDA and a man named Gilbert if you were going to "save" the project. It stands in a tract of land that abuts the now developed Downtown.
DeleteA damn shame.
ReplyDelete