Artist Statement - Suzy Lake

A keen interest in the cycle of urban renewal with combination of my own ancestry provoked this body of work. My family came to Detroit following the Civil War and were a part of building the successive Germantown communities. In 2014, I began researching and recording many of my family’s homes in the city core from 1880-1925. While engaged with my ancestry, it became a performance that critically implicated a history and heritage, as well as the current state of urban, demographic, and social development of my hometown.
Eventually, I located 30 properties. Working from the Canadian Residency studio across from Detroit’s Eastern Market, I could almost see all 30 of these locations from my rooftop. Not all properties were in habitable condition; yet each one contained a remarkable story. Neighbours would suspiciously come to investigate when I would set up my camera. As conversations revealed I had a 19th century relative living in their neighbourhood, they excitedly offered me their oldest memories or peculiar stories of their own families.
Performing an Archive was first realized as an artist book, and a touring exhibition of framed photographs.