hocking & friends @ hilberry

When it comes to local artists showing at hilberry, everyone pays a little more attention to the art/artist on display. This is one of those shows that has had a buzz before it even opened. I had heard rumors begin late in the summer that hocking was on to something different. I initially assumed it was something similar to what he was doing in the last few group shows - sharpie marker drawings on found object panels. Most people associate detroit junk and altered found objects with hocking so it was a surprise to see the gallery filled with fiberglass painted animals. One of the hot topics of debate at the opening was not necessarily the idea of the work, but the means the work came together. Through hocking's connection he managed to acquire 40 + city animals - the kind that litter a city's downtown streets. Detroit had trashcans...the zoo had bears...every city has their own animal to call their own. The animals were then sourced out to other detroit artists to paint. Talking with a few of the artists, I found out that hocking didn't dictate what each artist painted but only the placement of the animals and the story they tell in the gallery. Now, some people, once they found out that hocking did not make or paint all of them were angered at the idea and one artist even told me "they had been fooled" but most people didn't object to the idea. Now, I can already see the debate starting if having other artists paint the animals takes away or adds to the idea but the critique shouldn't be based on this topic alone. The work is about taking a "piece of art" that sits in a city for everyone to gawk at, deface or bid on and put it within a gallery environment for a different audience to view. Hocking's work is still about taking "junk" and repackaging it to view in a different context. He no longer is taking rusty parts from warehouses but instead using leftover public art vessels as his palette. Detroit found object art has its limits so I enjoy seeing exploration from an artist who has been pegged mr. detroit found object. friends include: dylan spasky, john corbin, faina lerman, nick sousanis, clint snider, dan dimaggio, melanie manos, jim storm, gina reichert, brad taormina, zeb smith, jeff karoiski, sara blakeman, matthew blake, denise fanning, sioux trujillo, ron ribant, karlbuzewski, ben kiehl, mitch cope, jeff hocking, lakela brown. The list was double typed in an up-side-down mirror image so it was difficult to make out some of the names. There were also no prices included which seemed strange. I also wanted to find out what local artists really thought of the pieces but seeing that a majority of local artists painted the animals, it was hard to separate their thoughts with the curator.