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Required Reading
Did you know Mexican artist Diego Rivera built a massive, tiled icon of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, sprawling face-up in a pool of shallow water. (via architizer.com) This week, droit de suite, art...
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Photographer Looks Out On the Edge of Detroit’s High Rises
Dennis Maitland's show on the edge of a high rise in Detroit. Image by Dennis Maitland. LOS ANGELES — Standing atop buildings in skyscraper-bound cities like New York and Hong Kong, we’re bound to look...
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Detroit Is Not a Utopia
Artists Steve and Dorota Coy are featured in the new documentary “Detropia” (image via DetropiaTheFilm.com) I don’t actively seek out photographs and films documenting Detroit’s decay. Detroit ruin...
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Populating the Empty Spaces of Detroit
All photos from Detroiturbex’s “Cass Tech High School – Now and Then” series (click to enlarge) (images via detroiturbex.com) What’s most often missing from pictures of Detroit are people. They don’t...
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Relics of a Future Environmental Collapse
Detail of Lina Puerta, “Untitled (Tree and Frame)” (2014) (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) Lina Puerta makes ruin porn on an unusually intimate scale. These are not dramatic photographs of...
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A Portrait of a Chinese Ghost Town on the Verge of New Life
A mosque in Kangbashi (all photos courtesy Raphael Olivier) The district of Kangbashi in Inner Mongolia, China, is famous for its emptiness. Widely labelled a ghost town, it stands as a cautionary tale...
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Quiet and Haunting Photographs of Our Modern Ruins
Amanda Alic, “Fantasyland #3” (2003) (courtesy the artist, all images via Front Room Gallery) Our fascination with ruins is nothing new. Artists on the Grand Tour through Europe in the 17th century...
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Artist Relocates Abandoned Detroit Home, Dropping it at the Corner of...
Artist Ryan Mendoza in front of his “The White House” project at the 2016 Art Rotterdam fair (photo by Geert Broertjes, courtesy Art Rotterdam) DETROIT — You can’t really talk about expatriate American...
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The Artist Who Moved a Detroit House to Europe Left a Mess Behind
Ryan Mendoza, “The White House” (2015-2016) installed at Art Rotterdam (photo via @joepvandermade/Instagram) Last month, Berlin-based Ryan Mendoza pissed off a lot of people when he tore down an...
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The Radioactive Ruins of the Cold War’s Secret Cities
Nadav Kander, “The Aral Sea I (Officers Housing), Kazakhstan” (2011) (all images © Nadav Kander, courtesy Flowers Gallery) During the Cold War’s nuclear arms race, the Russian military tested hundreds...
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Paintings of Detroit Ruins that Ring True
Installation view of Nancy Mitchnick’s ‘Uncalibrated’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (all images courtesy the artist and MOCAD) (click to enlarge) DETROIT — Nancy Mitchnick’s representations...
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