(Photo credit: GEERT BROERTJES/ART ROTTERDAM)
“The White House,” by Ryan Mendoza, was on view at the Art Rotterdam festival in the Netherlands in February. Mendoza removed the facade of an abandoned house in Detroit for his installation, prompting criticism about how it affected the neighborhood it came from.
The Monday demolition of a blighted Detroit home made famous in an art installation thousands of miles away raises questions about the relationship between artists and the communities that inspire their work.
Ryan Mendoza, an American-born artist living in
Europe, used the house on Stoepel Street as the raw material for “The
White House” at the Art Rotterdam festival last month. He first
visited Detroit last year, removed the facade of the house, which was purchased
and donated by a local friend, and shipped it overseas. In the Netherlands
city, he reconstructed the shell and painted it white. He played Motown hits
and projected family snapshots and video taken during his trip to evoke the
house’s history. Read More here!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-mendoza-detroit-white-house_n_56fbb88be4b083f5c6060d31