When thinking about roles art can play in cities, the idea of cyclical cities, which refers to how cities have life cycles of their own that mimic natural life cycles, offers guidance. While naturally, life cycles flow up the food chain to eventually return to its primitive beginnings; cities use competitive advantages to grow until said advantages are overpowered by others, leaving these cities less apt to prevent general decline.
This is the story of several post-Industrial, rust-belt cities including Buffalo, where educator and artist Dennis Maher has set up his artistic practice. His work is primarily concerned with bringing new life to the material excess of Buffalo’s past. Fargo House, perhaps Maher’s most well-known project, saw him explore the nuances of domesticity through the lens of reclamatory art. What I found the most interesting about Maher’s work was how he took the fragments of the past and gave them new value through art. In this manner, art can be used as decomposer to breed new life in cities that are seemingly past their prime.
Fig. 1 The exterior of Fargo House. Source: Dennis Maher’s Assembled Cities Fragments website.
Fig. 2 The interior of Fargo House. Source: Dennis Maher’s Assembled Cities Fragments website.