Connecting the Dots: Tyree Guyton's Heidelberg Project

by Jerry Herron (Introduction), Heidelberg Project

In its twenty years of existence, the Heidelberg Project has inspired awe in visitors from around the world, drawn praise from the international art community, and provoked extensive discussions in its own backyard. In 1986, Tyree Guyton created the project with the idea of visibly transforming the environment of his decaying neighborhood, which was marred by crime, prostitution, and gangs. Using the materials around him―cast-off toys, discarded car parts, and other debris―along with his trademark brightly colored polka dots, Guyton eventually transformed several houses and vacant lots on Heidelberg Street into the city's most recognizable art environment and one of its leading tourist attractions. Connecting the Dots, the first comprehensive collection of writings on the Heidelberg Project, attempts to get to the heart of Guyton's project by considering it from a number of fascinating angles―including legal, aesthetic, political, and personal.

Because of its unorthodox nature and large scope, Guyton's art has often met fierce opposition in his own neighborhood while garnering raves from around the world. Connecting the Dots explores this tension in "Art or Eyesore?" by landscape architecture expert and Harvard lecturer John Beardsley and in Detroit News reporter Michael Hodges's essay, "Heidelberg and the Community." Former Detroit Free Press editor and publisher Neal Shine adds a piece on Sam Mackey, Guyton's grandfather and the artist's inspiration for the project. In addition, a complete legal perspective on the Heidelberg Project is presented by attorney Daniel S. Hoops, and the city's position on the project is explained by Marilyn Wheaton, former director of Detroit's Cultural Affairs Department. Wayne State University professor of art history Marion E. Jackson also offers an aesthetic analysis of Guyton's project, and Detroit native Aku Kadogo discusses bringing Guyton and his project to Sydney, Australia. Connecting the Dots concludes with an "inside view" of the Heidelberg Project in a piece by Jenenne Whitfield, the project's executive director.

Connecting the Dots presents these essays along with a thoughtful introduction by Wayne State University professor of English Jerry Herron and an artist's statement by Tyree Guyton. Numerous photographs of Guyton's artwork are also included in this full-color oversized volume. Artists, art historians, and those interested in Detroit cultural affairs will enjoy this comprehensive and intriguing book.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 2007

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

A joyless book about Detroit's famous neighborhood-cum-artwork, this book falls short in a few enormous ways. First, its design is that of an artsy book, with the book's size, paper weight and the Helvetica type filling certain pages...but far more space is given to words than to images. Second, the essays portend to be about different subjects...but they are repetitive and rarely (if ever) worth the read. Third, any book about the history of an evolving artwork must represent the changes in more than just words...but this book doesn't show the Project's changes over time beyond shots after demolitions that took place.

I love Tyree Guyton's Heidelberg Project for what it is and what it does. This book, however, adds nothing to the legacy beyond some of its photos.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about the Heidelberg Project. The book details how the project has been a controversial topic in Detroit. On one hand, it has received positive notoriety from around the world but also has been criticized locally. Many local residents resent the urban gawkers who come to visit the project. This book also details the wide reach the project has in a number of different areas. Tyree Guyton and the others associated with the project are quite active promoting arts in the community.

[Gjacobsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview from 2007 of the occasionally controversial Heidelberg Project as told by a series of contributing writers. Perhaps one part propaganda for this longstanding, neighborhood-based open air museum of found detritus and ephemera passionately assembled by artist Tyree Guyton as well as the related nonprofit and one part commemoration critique, the book is uneven on both fronts as some essays are stronger than others. Nonetheless, if you're interested in Detroit, it provides a snapshot of this place, this activity, this vision that is the Heidelberg project.