In honor of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)’s Winter 2014 opening exhibit on Friday (2/7), two of Detroit’s most interesting acts will be brought together for a celebration of Detroit music and art culture.
Jamaican Queens, Detroit’s highly-acclaimed dark-pop trio, and CoOwnaz-affiliate emcee Doc Waffles will grace the MOCAD with the evening’s exhibition soundtrack. Their performances will begin at 9 p.m., following the exhibition’s member preview (6 p.m.) and public opening (7 p.m.). Admission to the opening event is free to MOCAD members, and a suggested $5 donation for all others.
Friday’s MOCAD opening will include the following artistic exhibitions:
James Lee Byars: I Cancel All My Works at Death
“I Cancel All My Works at Death is the first comprehensive survey in the United States of the plays, actions, and performances of James Lee Byars (b. Detroit 1932—d. Cairo 1997). Spanning the period from 1960 (when he created his first action in Kyoto, Japan) to 1981 (when de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam presented a year-long survey), the exhibition, which is titled after Byars’s now-famous speech act, adopts the premise that the artist and his work are better misremembered than re-experienced. I Cancel All My Works at Death therefore presents none of his actual performances; nor does it include objects made, owned, or used by him, nor vintage ephemera, with the exception of obituaries published in newspapers at the time of his death. What it does include are suits and costumes, scripts, theater posters, props, puppet videos, a detailed timeline, among other elements. It also includes new, unauthored solo actions and group events that will be carried out sparingly and intermittently during the run of the show.” – via Facebook
Exhibition: State of Exception
“State of Exception is a project of the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, where it was first exhibited in January 2013. It represents the collaboration between artist/photographer Richard Barnes, artist/curator Amanda Krugliak, and U-M anthropologist Jason De León, considering how best to curate objects from De León’s Undocumented Migration Project. The exhibition presents backpacks, water bottles, border restraints and other objects left behind by undocumented migrants on their journey into the U.S., and audio interviews from migrants relaying their own perspectives and experiences, and their relationships to these objects. There are also video and photographs shot by Richard Barnes on location along the U.S.-Mexico border…. State of Exception conveys the complexity and ambiguity of these found objects, and what they may or may not have revealed in terms of transition, humanity, commerce, culture, violence, and accountability.” – via Facebook
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit has served Detroit’s new-age art culture for more than five years in Midtown (located at Woodward and Garfield, nestled between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies.)
The non-collecting institution brings out-of-state and local art exhibits to their 22,000 sq. ft. complex with support from: the Taubman Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Renaissance Media, GM Foundation, Knight Arts Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the National Endowment for the Arts.