Interview with Shani Peters, current DEPE Space Resident. Peters installation is in our DEPE Space Gallery until January 5, 2014.
Excerpt from the interview:
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a person who likes to experience the most out of life. I do things that allow me to do just that, and hopefully help others have enjoyable, meaningful life experiences too.
What have you been up to in Detroit?
Reflecting, seeing, comparing, contrasting. Showing videos, watching videos, and having lots and lots of conversations… I’m also spending lots of time behind my laptop, like I do no matter where the hell I am… And I’m getting hair braided on Friday! Excited about that!
Please describe your DEPE Space project.
My DEPE Space project is a continuation of my work exploring and activating the overlaps between video art and public art. I pulled together a program of video works from myself and 3 other really awesome artists—Aisha Cousins, Ariel Jackson, and Jasmine Murrell—which all speak indirectly to the of life in Detroit. These videos loop in the DEPE Space Lab and are accompanied by physical elements that relate to the videos. The videos where also shown in three other public programs taking place both in and outside of the museum that included group discussions about the works and how they relate to the lives of the community members watching the works together. The project is meant to draw out the capacity of video art to spark imagination and open up dialogue.
What do you like about Detroit?
The first thing that comes to mind is that it is SO BLACK. Like many areas in Michigan there is a uniquely harmonious relationship between races here—not say it’s ever perfect, but I’ve found that where inter-racial relations exist here they are very often genuinely human, not put-on for politically correct or photo-op purposes. So that too is great about Detroit, but the overwhelming blackness—80% of the city’s population—is an extremely significant component of this city’s identity not only for the people that live here but for the nation as a whole. It’s at once a symbol and a reality; it’s a reflection of so much of what this country was founded on and has become.