Baby, I'm FROM Detroit, and I've been overexposed to TRTL/TURTL/Turtle for YEARS. I just got out of Art school too, so you know it was a topic of cultural discussion/distraction.
TURTLs were cool for a little while, but the dude got crazy. He first angered us at school when TRTL was found on some of the city's many old murals, and then really got us when he plastered all over some of the city's downtown "modern" art sculptures at Hart Plaza. Sure, the sculptures were bad art, but still...
I don't have a problem with wild grafitti getting widespread if it had a message, or presented a unifying aspect to the city, but it's gotten a bit ridiculous since it was tagged on the local CVS/Pharmacy.
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I think the turtle as a symbolic emblem for the city has less to do with immortality than it does the slow-moving progress and ability to regress into its shell. Living in Detroit, I can attest to the sorry situation that the city is in and the social and economic inability its residents have toward breaking out of that shell. |
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