If this isn’t hardcore Detroit-related and Black History Month-related, well, call me George Wallace and wheel me outta here.
The Heidelberg Project is the brainchild of artist Tyree Guyton, started in 1986 and constructed by Guyton, his wife Karen and grandfather Sam Mackey (a side-thought: we can only imagine what that poor woman thought, like most wives, when Guyton first proposed the idea; “Oh, Lord, my husband has gone insane!” – r2), Guyton subverted the decay and desolation born of the aftermath of the 1967 12th Street Riots, of his native MacDougall-Hunt neighborhood, setting off, if you will, a “happy bomb.” Derelict houses painted in circus colors and childlike motifs, fences adorned with discarded shoes of feet long perambulated, bicycle haystacks and tumbleweeds, orphaned dolls and toys piled high forming a Toyland Tower of Babel reaching up to Heaven.
During its history, The Heidelberg Project has had its share of detractors from the neighborhood residents and the City of Detroit, with two mayors ordering its dismantling. Throughout its existence it has also seen arsonists ravaging entire installations. Each time, Guyton et al. start fresh with new installations.
Relocation plans from the Heidelberg-MacDougall block, entitled Heidelberg 3.0, initiated in 2016. If you can’t make it in person, there are apps that offer the virtual experience (as well as a cell-sized screen can, anyway) — ain’t technology great? — for your iPhone and Android-powered surveillance device. But, people, believe me, nothing beats the live experience! The installation is open to the public and visiting hours are 8:00am – 7:00pm. You might as well make the best of the end of the world, what with “spring in February” and see it the way it was meant to be seen: walk it.
Further reading…
EDIT 2024-02-29_17:57:45: typographical errors