DETROIT, MICH.- The Detroit Institute of Arts is displaying a 20-foot tall, 400-pound installation titled “Thalassa” by famed New York street artist Caledonia “Callie” Curry, known as Swoon. “Thalassa” takes its name from the Greek goddess of the sea, and was originally created for the New Orleans Museum of Art where it was on view in 2011. It has been adapted for a site-specific installation in the DIA’s Great Hall from Sept. 24, 2016 to March 19, 2017, and is free with museum admission, which is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
The massive sculpture, constructed of plywood on a steel frame and covered with paper cut outs and prints, has been suspended from the ceiling of the museum’s Great Hall. Thalassa’s face is looking upward and her bodice is adorned with imagery of sea creatures, as well as colorful swathes of fabric. Long paper ribbons cascade beneath her like tentacles reaching into the sea. Swoon’s installation at the DIA coincides with a community mural project in Detroit’s Jefferson-Chalmers district, executed with the assistance of several local artists.
“Building connections between art and community is a vital component of the museum's vision,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. “It will be a powerful experience for the residents who encounter Swoon's Jefferson-Chalmers mural in their daily life to see a part of their neighborhood reflected inside the museum. At the same time, we hope it inspires museum visitors to see that neighborhood in a new way. The DIA belongs to everyone in the region, and this project creates new opportunities for those connections."
Swoon is particularly interested in bringing “Thalassa” to the DIA where its presence and the vibrancy of its organic forms will transform the traditional Great Hall as well as speak to her interest in environmental concerns, climate change and ecosystems that surround cities.
Swoon is represented by Detroit’s Library Street Collective (LSC), a contemporary art gallery that is facilitating the DIA and Jefferson-Chalmers projects. “The connection between the Great Hall installation and Swoon’s work in community streets is a powerful one,” says LSC owner Anthony Curis, “It is testament to the DIA's commitment to share culture beyond the museum walls while affecting positive change for the city's residents.”
Swoon adds, "I have a long love of Detroit, having worked in the city at various times over the years with the Allied Media Conference, and the Power House Project in Hamtramck. Detroit and its powerful history have always been an inspiration, not to mention Tyree Guyton's Heidelberg Project being a long-standing beacon for anyone who is interested in how art can transform community. I'm excited to return."
Swoon, born in 1977, moved to Brooklyn at age 19 and studied painting and printmaking at Pratt Institute. She was influenced by classical and Renaissance art, but inspired by the graffiti and street art in New York City, she began wheat pasting life-size prints and paper cutouts of human figures in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Swoon believes her work and that of other street artists is part of a "healthy practice in a healthy city… [where] people are part of the visual creation of their neighborhoods." Other of her large-scale installations include “Swimming Cities” for the Venice Biennale (2009); the inauguration of the Konbit Community Center, Haiti (2011); and “Submerged Motherlands” for the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2014).
