Graham Foundation > Grantees > Power House Productions

Squash House, existing conditions site photo, 2010, Detroit, MI, USA. ©PHP

Our neighborhood suffers from an abundance of houses. Two artists have been invited to rethink the role these unused building structures play in the neighborhood and how their art repositions these houses as active sites of engagement. Jon Brumit will incorporate sound and space; Graem Whyte will utilize sport and sculpture to reinterpret everyday architectural spaces. Using contemporary art as a transformative device, each artist will independently investigate and challenge where and why we make art, and for whom. These projects will enrich work previously developed and implemented in this Detroit neighborhood since 2008, including that by the artists Swoon, Ben Wolf, Monica Canilao, Richard Coleman, RETNA, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, and Design 99.

Jon Brumit is an artist who works creatively with interactive social design, structured improvisation, and multi-layered interventions. By his design, objects in combination with public performance situations produce unpredictable results—occasionally humorous, often sonorous, and always highly interpretable. Jon's work is, at times, highly dependent on audience participation or the lack thereof, with the audience acting as a component of the work, making for an interesting and unusual educational experience for all involved. Recent commissions and projects of interest include South Bay Talent Center, a public arts commission in a San Jose storefront; Gold Record Studio: Live at Laney Flea Market, an onsite public recording sessions in Oakland, CA; Talking Homes, a radio transmitter composition and performance, versions of which have been presented in San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, and New York; and BYOR (Bring Your Own Radio), an onsite performance commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Graem Whyte is a sculptor, living and working in Detroit. His career started in the field of architecture before shifting to fine art. In 2009, Whyte received a Skillman Community Art grant, for his collaboration with Faina Lerman on the large-scale, outdoor sculpture Memory Field. Whyte and Lerman are co-owners of the experimental art space Popps Packing in Hamtramck, MI. Whyte is also the owner of MagmaGlacier Design, a design/build outfit specializing in custom architectural components. His sculptural pieces are meticulously crafted and possess a sharp sense of humor. His work utilizes a wide array of materials and showcases a variety of influences including architecture, the landscape, patterns of science and nature, and Chewbacca. He has previously shown at Gallery Project and Ann Arbor Art Center (Ann Arbor, MI); 2739 Edwin (Hamtramck, MI); and Cave, Re:View Contemporary, and Johanson Charles Gallery (Detroit, MI).

Power House Productions (PHP) codirectors Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert have selected the artists participating in Project Duplex. Cope and Reichert established PHP in 2009 to both broaden the scope of ongoing artistic work initiated in their Detroit neighborhood, as well as widening the network of artists working there. In 2010, four houses were transformed by visiting artists, including Swoon, Ben Wolf, Richard Coleman, and RETNA. Collectively entitled Juxtapoz x Detroit, this project was made possible thanks to the generous donations of over 100 artists to the Juxtapoz Anniversary Art Auction. PHP and various neighborhood initiatives have received extensive media coverage from the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, 20/20, CNN, NPR, and the New York Times, among others.

Power House Productions (PHP) is an artist-run, neighborhood-based, nonprofit organization. Incorporated in December of 2009, our mission is to develop and implement creative neighborhood stabilization strategies to revitalize and inspire the community. Our programs incorporate a broad array of activities ranging from marketing vacant properties to creating public art installations. Strategies include integrating artist's live-work spaces within the existing cultural resources of the community and inviting artists to visit for extended periods to research and propose projects. In just a short few years, PHP has brought over twenty-five artists and designers into our community to work, learn, and observe.

It is our belief that through the skills and talent of artists and designers and their long term work in the community, a new kind of neighborhood will emerge—one that is creatively and actively enjoyable, safe, and sustainable for all.

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