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Fast
Forward, Play Back
This installation takes
inspiration from Dossin Elementary School
in northwest Detroit, which dancer/choreographer
Sparling attended in the 1950s. His memories
of childhood were awakened when he returned
to the school for a year-long residency.
Architect Eisenbach evokes a sense of
this typical public school building with
an architectural structure made of salvaged
slate and fabricated steel that creates
a corridor where videos are projected.
Five monitors, recessed among blackboards
along one wall, show montages of school
children and dancers. Etched on the opposite
blackboards is an historical account of
Detroit’s founding. By turns, chalk
writing by children and other community
members will cover all the blackboard
surfaces.
Eisenbach extends the
reference with imagery from Dossin captured
on photo-sensitive Mylar panels; the space
reminds us that the public school is a
place layered with individual and collective
memory. Sparling with his dance company
and Terri Sarris through her video production
seek to reproduce the intersection between
school as remembered and the community
of Dossin’s present students.
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