Ziggurat - East, Summer, Fisher Body Plant #21

A native of Detroit, Scott Hocking creates sculpture from scavenged materials and photographs urban sites around his city. This image melds both sides of Hocking’s process.

The setting is a factory once used by Detroit’s auto industry, now stripped by scavengers and infiltrated by nature. (Note the stalactites hanging from the ceiling: they formed as they would in caves, as water seeped from above.) Within this evocative setting, Hocking slowly built a sculpture out of the factory’s wooden floor tiles. Over the course of months and through changing seasons, Hocking revisited the building, adding new layers to his pyramidal sculpture, which he photographed at different moments of its evolution. (See Acquisition no. 2011.32)

Finding resources where others often see decay, Hocking is part of a group of artists and others working to transform Motown’s urban landscapes. Rather than fleeing Detroit or romanticizing its ongoing crisis, these artists have developed inventive strategies that use the city itself as an artistic medium.