Scrapping, scavenging and Scott Hocking

Yesterday, artist Scott Hocking took us for a tour through the city. Scott does installations, paintings, collage art and he does also photography. Part of his work was exhibited at the Heartland exhibition in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. He took us along the old factory building in which he has built his Ziggurat pyramid installation.


1.

He commented on how being in a factory plant by all bij himself felt like being in nature. After his art piece Ziggurat got published about in several magazines, someone fenced off the building. The rumor is that an film studio is to be realized in the building.



2.

Scrapping and scavenging is part of Scott's practice. His studio, which is an old factory building downtown, is filled up with materials he found during his walks in Detroit. And although, he mentioned not being too much into scrapping anymore, he found several nice pieces during our tour.


3.

Scrapping and scavenging in Detroit is done in small and large quantities, scrappers work both with shopping trolleys as well as with pick-up trucks. Especially scrapping metal is of great interest to the people who are into this business since the revenues are relatively high.


4.

Scott says he meets many nice people on his tours. And with the exceptions he can always reason. He is afraid of the wild dogs who live in the buildings though.


5.

Detroit is very much a car city: the streets are wide and the city is very spread out. Yet, Scott is often walking or cycling into quarters which are unfamiliar to him. As an results he makes much easier contact with the local people who are living there.