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Anders Ruhwald’s blacked-out Detroit show intertwines past, present, and future

Dark Blaze

Anders Ruhwald’s blacked-out Detroit show intertwines past, present, and future

Inside one room of Unit 1: 3583 Dubois. (Courtesy the artist)

Artist Anders Ruhwald delves into interiority with the permanent installation Unit 1: 3583 Dubois. Located in a desolate area of Detroit inside of a 7,000 square foot brick apartment-building, the complete installation consists of eight full-sized rooms and corridors inside one apartment. Enveloped entirely in black, the installation is otherworldly.

The interior appears engulfed by fire though upon closer inspection the space is carefully crafted. The installation embraces the transformative qualities of fire as destructive and constructive in relation to the domestic, arguably the most intimate space. Using charred wood, ash, molten glass, steel, lead, tiles, bricks with sash window weights, bombs, and a photograph among other found things in the building and neighborhood, Ruhwald creates an after-image of what once was and at the same time creates a dream-like thought of what is to come. The work is not about Detroit “ruin,” but offers the possibility to understand the city’s decline as a transformative process.

Read the full story on our interiors and design site, aninteriormag.com.


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