Artist Ryan Mendoza, who famously took apart an abandoned home in Detroit for an art installation in Europe, has created another project, this time in Brightmoor. Mendoza invites both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to spend the night in the real White House to see what middle America is facing.
The houses are located on Lamphere Street, on either side of the house that resident John O’Malley has called home since 1956. O’Malley was a nurse his whole life, but in the past five years has battled cancer and is now unable to work. Brightmoor is one of the most blighted neighborhoods in the country, and O’Malley feels forced to carry a weapon to protect himself. The houses on either side have, for years, been exposed to the elements, broken into, and used by drug dealers in the past.
O’Malley and the volunteers from North West Brightmoor Renaissance working in conjunction with Jonathan Pommerville invited White House Artist Ryan Mendoza to visit 14386 Lamphere where Mendoza decided to make an installation in order to draw attention to the situation.
Update and clarification: O’Malley owns one of the houses and the Land Bank owns another. The house the Land Bank owns is on the demolition list. The house O'Malley owns will either need to be fixed up or demolished, per Land Bank regulations. An earlier version of this article stated that the Land Bank authorized Mendoza to do this, which the Land Bank denies.
Both houses are painted white with large bullet holes spelling the name of each candidate.
Mendoza invites candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to spend one night in the real White House in Brightmoor.
O’Malley wants to stay in his home; he wants the city to heal and he plans on being a part of his neighborhood’s comeback.
- Detroit House, Used as an Art Exhibit in Europe, Finally Demolished [Curbed Detroit]