Hello? Detroit? Are you there? … Windsor is calling
Windsor's message reminds both cities that they are in this together.Excerpt:Langlois calls the addition of the skyline an intentional choice. The simple silhouette brings us to a subject close to his, and the group's heart: communication with Detroit. Speaking from experience, Langlois is quick to comment on the estranged relationship between the city's residents, an alienation seen in the relative lack of cooperation between artists, community activists, and business leaders, given our physical proximity. "I think the physical border lends itself to the mental," says Brandon Walley, a local filmmaker. "It's much easier to say 'I'm just going to go to an art opening at the Cass Cafe then undertake this almost monumental journey across the border ... but I'd like to see the relationship change." Further border restrictions, which began this summer, seem to have only exacerbated things. And while high unemployment rates, home foreclosures, and empty factories continue to plague both cities, Langlois says the need to communicate is desperate. Hence the idea for a large-scale message from Windsor's citizens to Detroit's — a billboard-like communiqué announcing that Windsor is still alive and would even like to have a conversation with its similarly downtrodden cousin. The idea, involving what is essentially a giant light projector, came after the group rejected the idea of using actual billboards, but instead took a cue from the experimental urban art of the Graffiti Research Lab, which pioneered the use of LEDs to produce temporary street art.Read the entire article here.
