Thanks to our great crew (and Mother Nature for a string of cold days) we were able to finalize the icing of the house. Early yesterday morning, a professional lighting crew was brought in to light the Ice House Detroit landscape with painterly skill. The crew was directed by Richard Sands while Gregory photographed the project with his 8x10 still camera and directed an installation film of his own. This film was shot using a 35mm movie camera. The large lighting and film component which was completed early this morning brought our collaboration to another level, utilizing the architectural installation as a canvas for yet another form of expression. We will no longer be working our 24 hour shifts, but we are still interested in maintaining the dialogue amongst the citizens of Detroit. The neighborhood in which we decided to do our project is one of the poorest in the nation but after getting to know many of you personally we have been genuinely inspired by your perseverance in the face of systematic disregard and neglect. Thank you for your kind and generous support and for all of the stories you have been so willing to share.
For those of you who have not seen the home thus far, please feel free to view the project at 3920 McClellan St. (just off of Mack). It can be viewed for the next several days until the sun takes it back.
There are other questions which remain with regard to our project. Will the Michigan State Land Bank live up to their "intention" of using early release prisoners to deconstruct our home as opposed to the standard demolition? We have spoken to several organizations that are ready to walk through the home to agree that the inner wooden structure of the Ice House has maintained its integrity. The Detroit Salvage Warehouse was one such group which had been in talks with the state regarding this program. Let's see if the State can figure out how to put some of the citizens in this "far east side" neighborhood back to work with the new program of deconstruction. With the overwhelming number of empty homes in disrepair and the large amount of unemployed people needing jobs... It doesn't take much ingenuity to consider giving these contracts to the people that need it most and not these large demolition crews from the suburbs that do not appreciate the value of recycling building materials.
This digital photograph was shot a week ago. We will be processing the film from our large lighting set up this week. Stay tuned to see one of our final images in the near future.
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