For info on what Mel Chin did while in residence at U of M's Institute for the
Humanities, see page 3 (of 8) in the pdf here:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/UofM/Content/humin/document/NewsLayoutFall2001.pdf
His bio on art21 is at: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/chin/index.html
You should explore that site at your leisure. You can see clips of other shows. If you want
to see something else from season 1 or 2, please let me know and maybe we watch
it in a couple weeks You can get the DVDs from the library if you are interested..
Here is a little more.
The article on the link is longer than what I've pasted.
More on the Detroit project at
http://www.boggscenter.org/co-onethg.htm
"In the summer of 1999 ICUE brought together students, architects and
artists in a seminar to explore what an Architecture of Resurrection would
look like. Among the participants were Mel Chin from North Carolina and
Deborah Grotfeldt from Houston. Mel Chin is a Chinese American sculptor
internationally known for his public art works that address issues of habitat
devastation, restoration and sustaining the planet’s diversity, especially
for his “Revival Fields” project which uses the biomass of plants to extract
heavy metals from a Minneapolis brownfield so that the land can be re-used.
PBS will be doing a special on him this year.
Deborah Grotfeldt is an artist and administrator who, with African
American artist/activist Rick Lowe, co-founded the award-winning Project Row
Houses in one of the poorest African American neighborhoods in Houston,
Texas, transforming an historic l-1/2 block site of 22 abandoned shotgun
houses into a center that has become a model for a holistic approach to
cultural, educational, economic and social needs. Some houses, for example,
are used for artists installations, others for children’s after school
programs and still others for young single mothers and their children.
Because she was so impressed with the movement already underway
in the city Deborah moved to Detroit a couple of months ago to spend a year
organizing a project similar to Project Rowhouses in the Catherine Ferguson
Academy (CFA) neighborhood. The CFA project will include two houses rehabbed
with reusable materials and volunteer labor and a new house, designed by a
UDM School of Architecture studio, for mothers and children who need
emergency or long-term housing. Also in the works are an art garden and space
for revolving public art projects by local, national and international
artists in a residency program. Mel Chin, who has agreed to be the first
artist in residence, has designed a gourmet mushroom/worm growing enterprise
to be installed in an abandoned house in the neighborhood."
