Detroit Mayor’s Tough Love Poses Risks in Election

Read the following article in the New York Times on the course of the new mayor Dave Bing. The article is written by Monica Davey, and published in the New York Times on September 25th, 2009

Detroit wood in Holland

1. Wood on the veranda in Klinger

The Detroit wood is safe in Holland! After another few days of extensive salvaging (shown below in the Lee Plaza Hotel, a hotel considered one of the best in Detroit in the twenties - ´Art Deco with a Mediterranean twist- ) artist Diederick Kraaijeveld had gathered a nice base for his Icons of Hope. Almost all planks fitted in the Army Surplus bags. Fortunately the neighbors at Klinger Street were willing to lend their scales, so both bags could be filled until they both weighed the maximum allowed weight of 20 kilograms (or 45 American pounds). The coming months will be used to build the pieces. This weblog will keep you posted on that.....


2. Lee Plaza Hotel


3. Lee Plaza Hotel


4. Lee Plaza Hotel


5. Kraaijeveld with the Army Surplus bags

Detroit wood for Icons of Hope

Great hunting grounds for Diederick Kraaijeveld in Detroit. With urban explorer and guide Dan and Dutch cameraman Gideon Elings he was able to salvage beautiful pieces of wood for his 'Icons of Hope'.


1. Kraaijeveld in action

Kraaijeveld builds pieces out of originally colored found wood. 'An abandoned fire station proved very resourceful', Kraaijeveld tells us, ' I found nice red painted planks there'. Even the Packard Car plant, that has been abandoned since the sixties, offered real interesting pieces of wood: the floors are covered in oak: the cars used to be driven over it IN the plant. ' And the administrative offices all had oak panelling. Most of it is still there', Kraaijeveld explains. 'Not all......., I took a few pieces'.


2. Courtroom Highland Park


3. Floor Packard Car plant


4. Police Office Highland Park

Friday is the last day of wood salvaging for Kraaijeveld, then the next quest is how to get it shipped to the Netherlands.

Salvaging old wood from Detroit

Dutch artist Diederick Kraaijeveld will be in Detroit for a week to salvage colored wood from abandoned buildings in the Detroit area. Kraaijeveld builds monumental modern icons out of used wood in its original colors. He finds his wood in dumpsters, old buoildings, city dumps and along the shores all over the world. And now in Detroit MI.

He will build three ´Icons of Hope´ with the Detroit wood, back in his studio in Holland. The pieces will be exhibited in 2010 and then sold. All the proceedings will return to the Detroit Unreal Estate Project.

For Kraaijeveld, it will be an inspiring adventure to hunt for wood in Detroit. ´And it feels good to help the Detroit community as a thank you for that adventure´.

his site: www.oudhout.com

Below Kraaijveld presents us some of his recent work:

1.


2.


3.

Grown in Detroit

New Award Winning Documentary on the Catherine Fergusson Academy for Young Women
by Mascha & Manfred Poppenk

The Quiet Revolution

Grace Lee Boggs invites us to the second US Social Forum in Detroit, June 22-26, 2010, to help build greenhouses. Gardens, bicycles and poetry. Yes.