Art About Change:The Work of Tyree Guyton

This article presents the work of Tyree Guyton, and artist from Detroit who makes are of abandoned buildings and also paints and creates sculptures out of fond objects in the city. The author, Melanie Buffington, hopes that through the discussion of his work, students will be able to understand the multiple ways art can be interpreted, and to also see how an artist can communicate social messages through their artwork.

This article was written to highlight the ways that art can empower communities and encourage citizens to work together. In depicting this, the article mainly focuses on the art of Tyree Guyton and the message he tries to convey in his work. Tyree Guyton is a Detroit Native who creatures art that is mainly presented in much of the deserted space in Detroit, frequently painting abandoned houses and reclaiming waste such as dilapidated vehicles for his projects.

Guyton’s history is touched upon briefly in the article. Guyton was born in 1955 and gray up on Heidelberg Street of Detroit’s East side. These years were noted to be very impactful on his life, growing up nine siblings. Guyton did not have much motivation to be an artists by family, but he showed an interest very early in life and was very determined, visiting museums in his childhood and painting in his free time as an adult. His memories there were so memorable that the street is what now houses a majority of his work.

The Heidelberg Project was created in 1986 and continues to present day. The author Melanie Buffington states, “an important aspect of Guyton’s work is that it encourages people to talk about difficult issues including politics, racism, religion, poverty, homelessness, and consumption. The first of his works in the project mentioned is the Dotty Wotty House (1993-2001). The house of the project actually belonged to Guyton’s mother and was painted over with a myriad of colored dots. The dots were said to both represent his grandfather’s infatuation with jellybeans, and tackle tackle the deeper issues of race in that it portrays how are different colors but all the same on the inside.

Guyton has painted many abandoned homes in this fashion across Detroit, receiving positive and negative criticism from citizens, and appears to be in a constant struggle with the local government as much of his artwork is subject to being torn down or towed. Another one of his works, titled Move to the Rear (1994-2000) was a tribute ot the death of Rosa parks. Guyton painted over an abandoned bus with his now-notorious polka dots and adorned the bus with ornamental scrap and decoration. The city attempted tow the vehicle in 1999 and was even stolen in 2001, but was later retrieved by the FBI and placed on Heidelberg street opposed to the lot it formerly resided in.

What Buffington hopes for us to draw from this is that art can be used to inspire a community, to bring awareness and provoke meaningful conversation. As this article was meant to be an exercise, it must also be note that Buffington intended for students exposed to Guyton’s work understand that art can be interpreted multiple ways. Upon realizing this, she hopes that students will be able to become comfortable with the idea of multiple viewpoints and being able to articulate themselves through discussion about social issues.