Artistic Invasion
There's nothing taxing about cross-border art exchange, Duty Free.

As featured in The Windsor Star, July 22, 1999

By Craig Pearson

In what from the outside looks like a boarded-up, graffiti-sprayed warehouse, idly sitting among weeds and overgrown lots in a desolate stretch of Rosa Parks Boulevard, Windsor leads an artistic invasion.

A handful of local artists' work graces the purposely urban-distressed walls of the fledgling Detroit Contemporary gallery - precisely where you might figure you'd find old tires, not new art.

The Windsor contributors comprise the Canadian contingent of a cross-border art exchange called Duty Free, which also features a slew of American artists simultaneously exhibiting in downtown Windsor, at the Artcite and Common Ground galleries, and at the Eclectic and Milk cafes.

"It's an awesome idea," says Detroit Contemporary owner Aaron Timlin, who curated the American portion of the show. "I think Duty Free should happen every year, or maybe more than once a year. And it should even mix Canadian and American art because we get exposed to so much great work that way."

The Duty Free title proved rather ironic, however, given that while the American art sailed across the border without incident, the Canadian work ran into trouble clearing American customs - perhaps because customs agents weren't sure what to make of it. Is a video installation listed as art or TV equipment? The show was allowed through at the last minute, but not before the point was made: art, it turns out, is not exactly duty free.

Nevertheless, the art exchange continues in an unlikely Detroit neighborhood. It's largely thanks to Timlin, 28, who maxed out credit cards to start Detroit Contemporary last November and still funnels rental income from other properties into his first love. He's perfect to lead a cross-cultural art program, since he has had a life of experiencing new cultures and creative expression.

The oldest of seven siblings, Timlin was born in Detroit but raised and home-schooled on a very modest farm near Clare, Mich., by his father Hugh and his mother Two Moons. His father was more of a philosopher/artist than a farmer - having taught at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit after dropping out of seminary school in protest over sending would-be priests to fight in Vietnam.

"We moved to the farm in 1981 and lived off the land," recalls Timlin, who has dual American-Canadian citizenship because his mother (who is part African-American and, she thinks, part Native American) hails from the Toronto area.

"My father did his work and taught us at home. It was kind of like Laura Ingalls (from Little House on the Prairie): there was no electricity or indoor plumbing. We were pretty much dirt poor. So when my Dad wasn't selling art, he'd work on a sheep ranch where he would deliver the lambs. And he delivered two of my sibs at home, too."

Growing up, Timlin concentrated more on art and "riding horses and making wine and shearing sheep" than on book learning.

"I didn't even really learn to read till I was 13 because I didn't want to and my father let us learn what we wanted to," he says. "But then I decided I wanted to get into the social thing and meet people so I went to school in Grade 9."

He now lives a very urban existence, though has always retained his appreciation for creative expression. Which brings us to the Detroit Contemporary gallery, which inside currently looks more like a Windsor gallery.

"I keep hearing from people who are a little nervous about the area," Timlin says. "But I've lived in the city for 10 years. I used to bike through the ghettos all the time and not think anything of it. But with this show, for instance, I have people from Windsor coming over and not being able to find it and kind of hinting that it's in a bad neighborhood."

Regular Windsor gallery-hoppers will recognize some of the work at the Detroit Contemporary, since much of it has shown around town. It's a rather varied collection, from the flashing neon of Mark Lalibert'e's Repetitive Stabbing Device, to the video loop of lightbulbs smashing in alleys, called Manilla, by Jeremy Rigsby and Chris McNamara. The industrial noises, an eerie humming or bothersome scraping, emanating from the otherwise uneventful video loop The Line III of Christopher Bissonnette adds a dangerous ambience.

Other Windsor artists make the trip worthwhile, such as Matthew Hawtin's The Notion of Dread Rather than Anticipation, a very architectural piece, a minimalist work featuring two large panels, one black and one blue, both twisted a little for effect. It anchors the room.

The Ethnic Boys, the Art team of Marshall Heaton and Marko Stepanicic, offer one of the more daring contributions, with a pile of tacky paraphernalia called The Homeland Toy Series, that combine Nazism and Canadiana in a rather ambiguous fashion.

In Windsor, the strongest stuff is at Artcite or Common Ground. Several artists use an appropriately industrial approach, given that Duty Free is set in the Motor Cities. Sharon Que's Circuit, for instance, plays with industrial-looking parts. John Richardson makes what appear like odd engine blocks in his Dura-Membrane Series, a sort of Dead Ringers meets the auto plant.

The work on display at the Milk is perhaps the most controversial, if only given the inappropriate setting. Several nude paintings of women, many with black strips over the eyes, adorn the walls. It risks, however, alienating customers who merely want a coffee, given that it recalls the style of tasteless tabloids.

But the art in the cafe, just like the art at the out-of-the-way Detroit Contemporary, bring art to people who might not otherwise take a peek.

"I just try to break some barriers, which I think art does," Timlin says. "One of the greatest things for me, with my gallery in this neighborhood, is that when kids cut through my lawn, they sometimes come in and look. A lot of kids don't have that opportunity. Maybe I'll be able to inspire one kid to give art a try."