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A new art installation on the city’s east side pays tribute to the African diasporic experience and calls attention to an issue that the community says it can’t ignore.
New York artist Jordan Weber said he set out to acknowledge strong, Black women – Queen Idia, the first queen mother, who helped rule the kingdom of Benin (modern-day Nigeria) during the 15th century with her son, King Esigie and Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar, who fought to keep the country independent from the colonization of France in the late 1880s. The two, he said, represent the strength, resilience and doggedness of someone who will do anything to save their people and their land.
The artist and activist said he’s also seeing that same fight today in people rallying for social and environmental justice.
In the middle of the installation — a few blocks from the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant — is an air quality monitor to detect particulate matter (PM) levels in the neighborhood and jewel lights that give visual readouts of the PM in the air.
Weber’s project, the Detroit Remediation Forest, “New Forest, Ancient Thrones,” features a sculpture that resembles two crowns for the two African queens. The green space and artwork was unveiled last month at the East Canfield Art Park in partnership with nonprofits Sidewalk Detroit and Canfield Consortium.
“It’s a really strong symbolic, on-the-nose representation of the African diasporic experience and the trauma that’s in the land in both Africa and the US,” Weber said during a recent preview event. “Queen Ranavalona was exiled from Madagascar and that’s no different to me than us being displaced in our communities, where we have four or five, six generations of families who literally sweat and bled to get that land by playing by the rules that the oppressive regime had set upon us, so it connects in every way, shape, or form.”
The art park is a few blocks from the Mack plant, which has received multiple air quality violations along with the neighboring Jefferson North Assembly Plant. Stellantis has emitted more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than permitted at the Jefferson plant, resulting in a November 2022 violation notice from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. In March, EGLE ordered Stellantis to pay $84,420 in fines to the state for exceeding its allowed limit for VOCs.
Volatile organic compounds are air pollutants associated with paints and solvents that have been linked to health issues and contribute to the formation of harmful ozone.
Kim Theus, co-founder of Canfield Consortium, said air quality is something that the community can’t ignore.
“Last year, when the Canadian wildfires came and impacted different parts of the country, I was like, ‘We need to be able to feel comfortable about the air that we’re breathing,’” she said. “You get that sense of alarm when it happens to middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods, but when it happens to neighborhoods like ours, it’s kind of like, ‘Deal with it.’
“We’re not asking the auto manufacturer to go away or anything like that,” she said. “It’s really, own up to what’s going on and work with the community to make sure that community members are safe and healthy.”
Stellantis finalized a settlement with EGLE to resolve odor issues at its Mack plant in 2022. The agreement included the installation of a second air pollution control unit, or regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO), which was completed last summer, said Stellantis Media Relations and Content Manager Ann Marie Fortunate.
“Since then, EGLE has conducted inspections following a few odor complaints and has not confirmed a nuisance odor,” said Fortunate, adding that the company conducts daily monitoring and “also has not detected any nuisance odors.”
Art with a message
Sidewalk Detroit selected Weber last year as its artist-in-residence. Sidewalk Founder and Director Ryan Myers-Johnson said the team was looking for a person of color working at the intersection of environment and justice, who could respond to the needs and the vision of the community, but also have a powerful vision of their own.
Combating environmental racism has been a mission for Weber. The Des Moines, Iowa, native, who now lives in New York, has created environmental arts projects in industrial polluted neighborhoods such as his hometown, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Boston.
In 2020, Weber was commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis to create an urban farm and recently served as an artist-in-residence at Yale University to work on a project on Horse Island in Connecticut.
“Jordan just immediately really vibed with us,” Myers-Johnson told BridgeDetroit.
“We were just aligned when it came to value and the power of art to spark, not only conversation, but to really radically impact landscape in a culturally respectful and powerful way.”
Weber said the greenspace, next to an 8-acre field up against the factory, was really striking.
“It spoke to the entire team to do something more impactful for the community with that landscape and that topography,” he said. “I knew the first time I saw it (the park) that was the location of the project.”
The concept of legacy also played a role in creating the forest, Myers-Johnson said, as many in the neighborhood live in homes that were passed down from their parents and grandparents.
“He (Weber) began thinking about history and legacy and also about the level of resistance that people were embodying in that neighborhood, resistance against environmental apartheid or resistance against the foreclosure crisis,” she said. “And so, he connected that to some of the struggles of these different African kingdoms against colonialism.”
The installation’s crowns are also a tribute to Theus and her sister Rhonda Theus, who is also a co-founder of the Canfield Consortium.
The two have taken Weber under their wing by introducing him to residents in East Canfield and hosting community meetings about the project.
“We’ve known each other for a year and I feel like I’ve been embraced by them,” he said of the sisters. “And that matriarch and that motherly protection is very queen-like to me.”
Detroit-based fabricator and metalworkers Ben Wolf and Juan Martinez worked with Weber on the sculpture, which took a little over a month. Environmental organizations JustAir, Ecology Center and Green Door Initiative worked together on providing the air monitors with JustAir creating the software program. Park visitors will be able to view air quality levels on site or on their phones with the JustAir app.
The next phase of the remediation forest includes the construction of an elevated walkway and the planting of dozens of air-purifying plants, such as conifer, pine and cypress trees. Weber expects to have that done by next summer or fall.
Sidewalk Detroit also hopes to do more programming with the Barack Obama Leadership Academy across the street from the park, Myers-Johnson said. Students were part of the unveiling ceremony and the organization has hosted air quality workshops.
Kim Theus said she thinks of Weber’s sculpture as an iron fist in a velvet glove–it’s pretty to look at, but comes with the one-two punch of creating a lasting impact in the community.
“When we met you and you were talking about this project, I knew it would be special,” she told Weber at the preview event. “But seeing it all come together, it’s just…I don’t even have words.”
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Micah Walker joins the BridgeDetroit team covering the arts and culture and education in the city. Originally from the metro Detroit area, she is back in her home state after two years in Ohio. Micah… More by Micah Walker
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