Detroit City

 

After our second round of performances I had a bit of free time from any Blue Lake obligations and decided to take a bit of a working vacation, first hitting up Ann Arbor to perform the baritone solo in Maurice Durufle's Requiem and then heading to Chicago (much more on both of those later).

The travel aspect of the trip was a bit … circuitous.  Josh and Leah took me from camp to Grand Rapids, where I then hopped on the MegaBus to Detroit and then grabbed the Amtrak to Ann Arbor.  Before heading out, though, I made sure to get my go-to road trip snack and tweeted away:

 

The fact that Combo's Twitter account responded says a lot about my life… both the good and the bad :-/

 

I was surprised to find out the bus made a stop at Wayne State University in addition to the Rosa Parks Transit Center further downtown and took the opportunity (and two hour layover until my train left) to step across the street and visit the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Any chance I had to visit this place when I lived in Ann Arbor was quickly taken and it remains to this day one of my favorite museums, so it was a tad bittersweet that I only had a scant hour to go through.

One of the grandest pieces in the collection is Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry mural.  Comprised of 27 individual panels, the work was commissioned by the D.I.A. and Edsel Ford to depict industry at the Ford Motor Company and was considered by the artist to be his most successful work.

 

   

Get it, lil' Marxist!

 

Other favorites include…

     Nancy Graves: "Variability of Similar Forms"               Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: "Genius of the Dance" 

   

          The leg bone's connected to the… wait, huh?                   Alright Mr. Sassypants with yo' tambourine!

 

Mark Rothko: "Orange, Brown"

Always nice to be reminded a bit of my back yard

 

William Kentridge: "What Will Come"

 

This video installation is based on the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, when African civilians were gassed—a fact not acknowledged by the Italian government until 1995.  Just as the truth about the invasion remained uncertain for years, the distorted animation projected on the table becomes clear only when seen in a different way: it resolves on the reflective cylinder.

io9 recently had an article all about the history of anamorphic illusions (as seen above) … check it out if you've got the time!

 

There were also two special exhibits going on, the first of which I was able to see and the latter closed up a little early for the day.

 

 

An hour wasn't nearly enough time to spend but I had a train train train to catch to Ann Arbor.  Waiting at the station wasn't so horrible 'cause it was a beautiful day out!

 

 

Much much more from the trip later!

 

Artist: Tom Jones / Album: The Complete Tom Jones