Richard Wilson’s “Giant Steps” Mural
The Flats at Iron Ridge
December 24, 2024
Richard Wilson’s latest mural is yet another tribute to music, and I already like the way that sounds.
Wilson made his mark in Detroit with a towering likeness of Stevie Wonder outside the Music Hall downtown. I was there interviewing him about the pressure of being an out-of-towner tackling the greatest musician we’ve ever produced. That’s a lot of pressure to get it right, especially the facial figures.
With perfect comedic timing, a man rides up on his bike: “Hey, is that Eddie Murphy?”
We’ve been friends ever since.
Wilson’s latest piece is called “Giant Steps,” named after 1960 John Coltrane of the same name. An LP of the album is part of the mural. He’s always slipping in albums and musical trinkets into his work – with great detail, too. He’s quick to point out it’s a 1960 mono release of the album.
“I know full well it's likely only me who will know or care to know this,” laughs Wilson.
“Giant Steps” is a tribute to great friends, to a great journey. The main subject is Wilson’s friend and photographer Jimel Primm. He’s with a dog named Chili, who belongs to another artist friend -- the great Detroit sign painter Kelly Golden. The vintage moped they’re cruising into the unknown belongs to yet another friend, Joe Finch.
“I wanted to include a surreal element to it all,” explains Wilson. “The idea of travelling across the country at night with all your worldly belongings strapped to the back of a small bike with a 50cc engine and a dog made perfect sense!”
From there, he found his cast of characters, “whose way about them also totally fits the theme,” says Wilson.
To bring it to life, Wilson says he used “80% brushwork, 7% spray can, 3% finger, 10% spray gun.”
On top of the mono copy of Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” the details are immense. Everything matters in Wilson’s visual world.
“I love the part of the process of choosing objects. Some of that can be because there’s meaning,” says Wilson. “It’s also about what things are nice to look at, or might make a viewer think about moments in their own lives.”
There’s wooden crates, a suitcase, a soccer ball -- but not just any soccer ball. That’s the official Adidas game ball from the 1970 Mexico World Cup.
There’s a boombox which Wilson considers the “king of boomboxes.” It’s the JVC RC-M90, which was famously featured on the cover of LL Cool J’s 1985 debut album “Radio.”
All of this creates a sense of wanderlust, wonder, surrealness in a strip of suburban development where you can hear the hum of the highway at all times of day.
There’s a lot of traditional “street art” avenues Wilson could’ve went with this mural.
But Wilson pushed for this surreal vision. It feels like an escape from the suburbs. Something you could lose yourself in for hours amongst a whole lot of banality.
“In my own little world, these things matter,” says Wilson. “A lot of all this is part of my rose tinted spectacles for the past, and things of quality and longevity. I really hope and try to make images that are 'un-scroll-past-able'.”
Sure, it’s a far cry from the real estate and magnitude of his Stevie Wonder mural in downtown Detroit
But maybe “Giant Steps” is more needed here in a place without a lot of wonder.
“A therapist stopped by the wall when I was nearly finished to tell me she has been advising her clients to come and spend time at the wall,” says Wilson. “Talk about getting me teary!”
This post was published in part with WDET.
