Aazhoganan Baazhiji-ayi’iing Mishkodewenying (Bridges Over Flint)

A white wall with 24 small rectangular framed photos, in shades of brown and white

Bridges Over Flint by Matthew Brandt, 2016

Gelatin silver prints, developed with Flint, Michigan, tap water, Vitamin C, bleach, red wine. Courtesy Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, funds from the Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photograph Installation photography by Charlie Edwards, courtesy of the University of Michigan Museum of Art

About the Art

Bridges Over Flint (Anishinaabemowin)

Matthew Brandt
Gichimookomaanakiing, 1982 gaa-ondaadizi

Aazhoganan Baazhiji-ayi’iing Mishkodewenying
2016

Waabi-zhooniyaawaaboo mazinaakiziganan, giizhenindaagwadoon ge aabajichigaadeg nibi gaa-onzikaag Mishkodewenying, ondaajiwan C waabidewin, miskozhoominaaboo, Waawiyaatenong izhi-Ganawendaanaawaan Gaazheninjigaadeg gii-giishpinadoowaad ge aabajitoowaad zhooniyaa onzikaag Mazinaakiziganan gaye Mazinibii’iganan Webaamendaagozijig

Matthew Brandt aabajitoonan gegoon wii-giizhenindang daa-nisidawaabanjigaadeg dazhindang. Aazhoganan Baazhiji-ayi’iing Mishkodewenying-ing, aabajitoon naasaab wiinibiig ge bichibonigowaad wendaajig ji-mazinaakiziganiked. Ogii-aabajitoonan waabidewin gaye miskozhoominaaboo ji-banaajitood bangii. Aapiji zengindaagwad geyaabi dash Mishkodewenying wenji-aabajitood wiinibiig.

Bridge Over Flint (English)

Matthew Brandt
United States, born 1982

Bridge over Flint
2016
Gelatin silver prints, developed with Flint, Michigan, tap water, Vitamin C, bleach, red wine
Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, funds from the Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photographs

Matthew Brandt merges the physical materials of a landscape with the methods he uses to represent it. In Bridges Over Flint, he employs the same water that has poisoned residents of Flint, Michigan, to process his photographs. To enhance their toxic appearance, he toned them with bleach and red wine. By making the contaminated water integral to the photograph, Brandt creates a physical testament to the danger Flint residents continue to face from hazardous pollutants that are otherwise invisible to the eye.

About the Exhibit

Watershed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Watershed was on display June 4–October 23, 2022. It brought recent work from fifteen contemporary artists to UMMA for an exhibition that immersed visitors in the interconnected histories, present lives, and imagined futures of the Great Lakes region.

Visit the exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art