In the summer of 2010 I participated in Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation hosted by Broken City Lab in Windsor Ontario. Their proposal call asked for ideas to help stimulate the local economy and community.
My re-imagining of an economic stimulus called for a situational throw back based on locale, a moment of reflection and remembrance on the location of Windsor Ontario as a boarder town to Detroit Michigan. The Detroit River waves goodbye between these two cities and I wanted to focus on the affect this boundary has had on Windsor’s identity. I see this line between Detroit and Windsor as the centerfold to a dynamic narrative of struggle, triumph and balance.
Broken City Lab’s residency was held in Windsor's downtown and abandoned storefronts. I took this opportunity within a dead consumerist vitrine to use the visual language of storefront abandonment.
Both Detroit and Windsor have a large industry of car manufacturing (or had a large industry), and were both once considered cities outputting the highest volume of vehicles within their respective countries. I was interested in this relationship between Detroit and Windsor as two dying car-manufacturing towns. My research previous to this residency considered the affect of urban renewal, racial and spatial urban politics, and the importance of architecture within communities. Just prior to my Windsor experience I had an essay published, “Invisible Boundaries, Missing Architecture and Displaced Communities: finding ground to remember Paradise Valley in Detroit, Michigan”, which revealed how urban renewal projects enforced urban racial divisions, spatial politics, and ignored the power of community architecture, and space. The opportunity with Broken City Lab's Storefront Residency allowed me to expand this research and in particular tackle issues surrounding the connection between Detroit and Windsor via the Ambassador Bridge.
Windsor, like Detroit, is car-centric and because of this it becomes a statement to pedal-bike in the city, in this way cycling becomes political in Windsor. Many of us were blessed with one of senior research fellow Michele Soulliere’s bicycles. With my new wheels I made a video that documented my travels and discoveries in the city. This video was projected within my dead consumerist vitrine.
image by Daragh Sankey
Video Stills:
The Ambassador Bridge is privately owned, this has caused many issues for both Windsor and Detroit. The bridge company has bought an entire street of homes on Indian Road in Windsor. The families are gone, the windows are boarded up, and there is a fence that runs along the street dividing the property of the home from the street. The grass is cut on the side of the fence that the bridge company owns while trees, bushes, and local wildlife take over the homes. Below are video stills of Andrea Carvalho running a stick along this fence.
Windsor has spent a lot of money creating a water front park along the Detroit River. This park has been groomed to fit walking, riding, and rolling, from one end of the city until you hit a dirt path at the other end, at which point you simply turn around and head back. Within this park there is the usual ill-fitting public art works: running aliens, penguins, representations of a minimalist tradition, and the hand of god. The most ironic aspect about this park is that when you sit on the benches and gaze out towards the river you are also gawking at the megastructure that is Detroit. There is no emphasis back into Windsor; it seems to consistently point you towards the auto Mecca of Detroit.
image by Daragh Sankey
image by Daragh Sankey
A trip to grand central station in Detroit Michigan with Daragh Sankey. We also visited the Heidleberg Project where Tyree Guyton has been taking over the street for 25 years.
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