Object Orange

Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland

Detroit, Michigan

2009 to present

When a collective of Detroit artists calling itself Object Orange started painting some of the city’s 7,000 abandoned and dilapidated buildings bright orange, they meant to bring beauty to decay. When four of the original eleven painted houses were quickly demolished by the city, the group’s endeavor turned to raising awareness about the hazardous conditions associated with blight: low morale, depressed property values, and crime. This ongoing project, dubbed Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland (the latter referring to the paint, from Behr’s Disney Color series) has evolved into a call to action, with the group declaring, “These buildings aren’t scenery. Don’t look through them…Pick up a roller.”

Community, Information, Pleasure, Sustainability
500 –1,000
4 hours
3-14
Problem - urban blight
Solution - make an ignored problem starkly visible