Speaking via e-mail, Fishman says the mural’s “rhythmic repetitions” were designed to counterpoint the building’s horizontal balconies and were inspired by the “pulse of the city’s electronic music scene” as well as “the echo of its assembly lines.”
“Detroit always had a huge effect on me — even before I moved to the area,” says Fishman, who grew up in Philadelphia before migrating to New York and eventually settling in Michigan in the 1990s.
Fishman says the colors chosen for the mural are part of a much larger conversation of how lighting affects not only the mural but the city itself — not unlike the changes the cityscape has seen with the addition of LED streetlights in recent years.
“Every decade, the world of colors in which we live evolves as new lighting systems develop and others go out of fashion,” says Fishman. “I wanted the mural to reflect the development of new types of lighting and how the visible surfaces of the city are constantly evolving.”
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