Hamtramck Disneyland

My last trip back to Detroit was probably the best, because in the name of our recently ended road trip we decided to check out some places that we had never been before. Hamtramck is a city within a city, a great little place with a population of under 25,000. It has its own mayor, police force, and everything, but to an outsider it's just like another one of Detroit's awesome little neighbourhoods. There is a high Polish population, and more recently a lot of people moving from the Middle East, especially Yemen and  Bangladesh, which makes for the best most delicious food choices you can imagine. We were told about Hamtramck Disneyland as almost an urban myth, a lot of people have heard about it and just never been there, and it's not easily locatable in the backyard of a normal looking house on a residential street.

This is the only kind of hint that something behind the house will be different from all the others.

Once you go down the alleyway to behind the house, though, the scene changes and you are inside the dreamworld of Dmytro Szylak, a retired GM worker who, legend has it, started all this as a hobby after he stopped working full time. He has decorated, with all kinds of repurposed objects, two small garages that sit behind his house. The tree beside the garage has become worked into the display, and the whole explosion of colour and fun takes place in the space of a small backyard.

You can walk amongst the windmills and airplanes, which are right outside the back window of his house.

It's easy for me to start appreciating this as artwork, recognizing the discarded, pop iconography as found, reworked, and made into something totally different and wonderful. It automatically reminded me of my friends Felix and Sasha's shrines around Toronto this past summer (which you can read more about here), but on a larger scale with brighter colours. But unlike places like the Heidelberg Project, another amazing outdoor art project, Disneyland does not stand for something larger and more important than it is. 

The best views of Disneyland are from the back alley.

Despite its loud colours, moving parts, and nightly traditional Ukranian folk music, Disneyland  is subdued. It's less art and more hobby, and it's totally unpretentious, which is why I think the name fits so well ("the happiest place on earth!"). Art for the sake of doing something you love makes me all gooey inside, and I'm glad this place is getting the right kind of attention.

And this little guy that I saw outside was just the cherry on the cake of a wonderful trip to Hamtramck. Go there when you get the chance and eat as many meals as you can. Also, go to the HoardHouse, my new favourite shop.