Traces, Remnants & Recollections

Homesickness Series and Portraits of Home, two of my ongoing bodies of work, focus their lens on the sprawling neighborhoods of Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, many rendered endangered and unrecognizable due to generations of disinvestment and abandonment. Homesickness Series and Portraits of Home present these neighborhoods directly through the language of meticulously rendered monochromatic ink drawings on watercolor paper and aquabord panels. Both series, stylistically modeled after tintype photography, co-opt the visual iconography and histories of architecture and landscape painting for their ability to reflect larger cultural ideals and shifts, in this case addressing the history and current struggles of “Rust Belt” communities and the disappearance of recognizable homeland. Both series frame endangered or absent homes in these cities as they appear today, as white voided façades or as empty lots. The varied presentation modalities of the homes are symbolic of the evolving disappearance of homes in Detroit and Highland Park, both cities having the largest home vacancy rates in the state of Michigan. Through the failings of the depicted or absent architecture in these series, the works address the one of the largest challenges facing post-industrial cities and the communities that call them home - the availability of safe, affordable housing and the maintenance of dense and tight-knit cultural communities.

About the Artist

Whitney Sage is a multidisciplinary artist and educator originally from metro-Detroit currently serving as Assistant Professor of Art at North Central College in Naperville, IL. As a native of suburban Detroit, the rich history of midwestern, industrial cities and their bellwether relevance to the American experience has been a continual source of inspiration for her work with the goal of opening a dialogue about challenging and uncomfortable histories and critically examining the lenses through which communities view and present one another. 

Sage earned a MFA in Studio Art from the Sam Fox School of Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis in 2011 and Bachelors degrees in Art Education and Painting from Miami University. A selection of her recent work has been recently featured in solo exhibitions at Buckham Gallery, Indiana University East, Workhouse Arts Center, Art Reach Mid-Michigan, ROY G BIV and Ripon College.