Accidental Music Compositions and Mutoscope inspired by the 1967 Detroit Rebellion.

Fire Damaged Structures - 1967 and 2016

17" dia. x 6" deep

Mixed Media

2017

A music mechanism playing an accidental composition triggered by empirical data plotted on a map.

The Language of the Unheard

8" x 17" x 8"

Mixed Media

2017

An animated mutoscope depicting loop of Dr. King addressing the unrest in American cities in 1967

Retrospective Loops

80" x 32" x 12"

Mixed Media installation

2016

Retrospective Loops is an installation of six mutoscopes (or mechanized animated flip-books) which are activated by pressing a button. This collection is inspired by memory fragments and perceived identity. It was exhibited at Art Prize 8 and was one of the top 100 works for that year in the public vote.

Click here to see some of the animations

50” wide x 20” deep x 13” high

Mixed Media

2003 through 2015

Inspired by “themed” chess sets, this work utilizes common archetypes from the 1967 Detroit Rebellion (or riot) to subversively allow players to re-enact that historic period. Each of the 32 pieces are kinetic sculptures with unique movements. 

Photos by Riva Sayegh

Quarturn

18" dia X 18" tall

Mixed Media

2015

(work in progress)

Quaturn is a prototype game in which players compete to place four consecutive beads on a constantly rotating board.

Afterhouse is an innovative subterranean green house conceived by Abigail Murray (Cranbrook) and designed by Steven Mankouche (UM Taubman School of Architecture and Archolab). The site for Afterhouse was purchased by myself and gifted to Kate Daughdrill's Burnside Farm which is on the adjacent lot. Afterhouse recently received a generous grant from the Kresge Foundation which will allow us to complete the project 

The following is an excerpt from the Archolab website describing the project:

Like too many Detroit houses irreparably damaged by disuse, vandalism and fire, the house at 3347 Burnside must come down. With support from the neighborhood, rather than razing it and leaving fallow land, we propose deconstructing the house and reusing the foundation to build a semi subterranean passive geothermal greenhouse.

Precedents in contemporary Bolivia and Renaissance Italy show that greenhouses that use the heat of the earth dramatically expand crop possibilities without the use of additional energy. Bananas grow in the Andes and lemons grow in Milan.

We will use materials from the house and in the vernacular of the neighborhood to integrate ideas culled from stories shared of the home’s history as we experiment with layering, light, transparency and heat. Utilized by an existing community garden after construction, AFTERHOUSE will draw from what once was to become a part of what Detroit is now.

The Mutoscopes are short animated loops activated by pressing a button. Click here to see some of the animations.

28” wide x 28” tall x 6” deep

Wood and metal assemblage

2012

The Exquisite Corpse Machine is second generation kinetic sculpture designed to facilitate collaborative artwork. Gallery visitors were invited to add to the composition by drawing in the opening and advancing the disc for the next person. Finished works are displayed on the adjacent wall, documenting the temperaments of the participants.

Photos by Riva Sayegh and Corrie Baldauf

Subjects (limited series of 10)

Potholes: Jos Campau and Carpenter (limited series of 10)

8" x 3" x 4" 

2015

"Subjects (#1 through #10)" are musical pieces composed via the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (aka the Psychopath Test). The responses on the checklist trigger notes on a music box mechanism when the crank is turned, creating a unique composition. The subjects are anonymous.

"Potholes" is music box composition created by plotting the locations of potholes at specific intersections in Detroit.

Various dimensions

wood

2014

Made possible by Compuware, Greening of Detroit and Lafayette Greens Community Garden. Facilitated by Megan Heeres.

The Boggs Birdhouses are inspired by designs from students at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit. During an after school workshop, the students discussed what makes a good community and created building facades based on those explorations. I fabricated the birdhouses, which were then painted by the students and installed at Lafayette Greens Community Garden in downtown Detroit.

18” dia x 12” tall

Mixed Media

2015

 "Exquisite Corpse Machine 3" (ECM 3) is the third in a series of prototype mechanisms designed to facilitate collaborative artwork. At its core, ECM 3 is a game in which up to 4 players have a few seconds to sketch or write on a card before the motorized board rotates and the card is transferred to one of the other players. After a few rounds, each of the players will have contributed to the pieces. ECM 3 addresses analysis paralysis and the loss of creative control. Syncopation is essential and the resemblance to an assembly line is not an accident.

(work in progress)

30" wide x 24" deep 65" high

2015

Mixed Media

An assemblage of discarded wooden mechanisms, recycled Auto Show exhibits and my Father's used paint palettes.  

24" dia x 32" tall

Mixed Media

2011

Meander is a an prototype abstract strategy game played on a constantly rotating board. The first player to move his or her pieces to the opposite side wins.

Photos by Riva Sayegh

18"x 18" x 1"

Wood

2013

Ex Cross (or X+) is a prototype abstract strategy game. The following is an excerpt from Rosie Sharp's essay describing the game:

Players line up two-sided wooden game pieces, each embedded with the eponymous X on one side and + on the other, along the back row of a modified checkerboard. In three-movement turns, players navigate the board, trying to capture each other along diagonals for X and orthogonal for +. Each piece can, at any time in a turn, flip to alter its capacity to move. Malone used this game as an opportunity to discuss with his daughter, Julia, the opposing philosophies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those of Malcolm X. As Malone sees it, each of these civil rights leaders was locked into a singular kind of movement, but ultimately an individual has better options when able to think flexibly.

Photos by Riva Sayegh

27" x 15" x 6"

Mixed Media

2012

This piece compares two (unofficial) housing studies maps in my childhood neighborhood. The first map is from in 2000 and the second is 2010. The maps are identical, with abandoned or demolished buildings cut away. The cut outs pluck teeth on a comb in a deconstructed music box mechanism and create a little composition. There is more negative space on the 2010 map, so the composition is a more complex (and even a little melodic.) 

Photos by Riva Sayegh

3” dia. X 12” high

Mixed Media

2006-2013

Nexus is a sculptural abstract strategy game prototype inspired by the mission of the Game Show Detroit exhibition: “Gaming as a Catalyst for Appreciating Art and Building Community”. Nexus features a shifting topography which may be reconfigured to create paths. Pieces may be moved horizontally or vertically on the blocks.

Photos by Riva Sayegh and Corrie Baldauf

24" dia x 32" tall

mixed media

2011-2014

Planetoid is a prototype abstract strategy game played on a icosahedron. Planetoid eliminates the perimeter boundaries of a "flat" board game.

Tall Tales of Detroit

6" x 6" x 12"

mixed

2008

Tall tales of Detroit was initially conceived as a traditional narrative which posited whimsical explanations for uniquely Detroit phenomenon. The piece consisted of hundreds of drawings installed on a flip clock mechanism.

Tall Tales of Detroit Revisited

86" x 34" x 3"

mixed

2011

The drawings from the original Tall Tales of Detroit were composed on a grid with some of my Dad's old syndicated cartoons. The result is a series of non sequitur narratives that elude to the original themes. This piece was intended as a surprise for my father, who passed away minutes before it was complete.  

The Klinger House is a live/work space for artists, writers and creative folks situated in Detroit just north of Hamtramck. The Klinger House has proudly served as a node for a thriving creative community. More photos coming soon.

Klinger House Facebook page

48” wide x 16’-0” long x 60” high

Mixed Media

2007   

When my Dad ran out of room in his studio, he started painting the trees in the neighborhood. “Laughing Trees” sculpture is an homage to his work and an abstraction of his aesthetic. Laughing Trees was displayed in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts for their grand re-opening in 2007

Doodles, drawings, works in progress, etc.

A sampling artwork by my Father, James Hiram Malone (1930-2011.)