The Detroit Noborigama (The Salty Dog)
2011 - present
In the second semester of my junior year while I was a student at The College for Creative Studies (CCS) I learned that the large old salt kiln at the school was going to be demolished and thrown away. I then proposed and got approval to demolish the old kiln and to design and build a new wood-fired kiln with its bricks (and help from many friends) at Fortress Studio’s, the artist residency space in Detroit’s North End Neighborhood where Virginia and I were living at the time. The Detroit Noborigama, or The Salty Dog as it is affectionately known is composed almost entirely of recycled and donated materials, John Glick generously contributed the kiln shelves and bricks for the chimney, the wood to fire it was gathered around the neighborhood, and it's 40 hour long firings which require around-the-clock attendance and attention were held as block party events. I constructed the kiln thinking of it and the things that were to unfold around it as a site specific social practice project, very much influenced by artists like Theaster Gates who I had met and had a studio visit with the year before while I was a fellow at Oxbow School of Art and Artist Residency in 2010. Thinking of the kiln as a peculiar and spectacular social prompt that could serve as a transformational beacon and whose demanding process and simple economics could be reimagined as profound creative opportunities in addition to the ceramic things made by it ~ It was a multifaceted community effort and so many of the thoughts and questions that emerged from it continue to drive my work to this day.
It’s been 5 years now since it was last fired due to unrelated zoning and occupancy issues concerning the building, but fingers crossed we will be able to bring it back into use this summer.