Scott Hocking has had his piece of work, "The Sleeper," on display at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum since early August.
Over his career, Hocking's work has made its way into museums of high prestige in the United States, including The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
His work has also been featured in several institutions abroad.
Hocking's work has been part of the Broad Art Museum's Field Station series, a series designed around creating a versatile space for different artists to display their work.
Hocking's work will continue to be on display until Sept. 30.
Field Station is all about artists experimenting, presenting new work, and trying things they've never tried before, Carla Acevedo-Yates, associate curator at the Broad, said.
On Tuesday night, Hocking gave a lecture at the Broad about how his work came to be, and the process that goes into making art.
While working on a project in an old abandoned building in Detroit, he discovered that his work had changed. Instead of admitting defeat, Hocking took this as a lesson about control. He said that after this realization, he started to focus more on the process rather than the end result.
Being a Detroit-based artist, Hocking's art draws inspiration from the constantly changing landscape of the city.
Hocking showed the audience examples of his work, all of which can be found on his website.
A theme in his work is using materials found on-site to sculpt his new pieces.
When the lecture transitioned into talking about his work that is on exhibit at the Broad, Hocking talked about his connection with the railroad.
"Pretty much everywhere I've lived, I've lived within walking distance from the train tracks," Hocking said. "The sound of the train at night became something very comforting to me."
Hocking used over 300 railroad ties to complete his piece. He said one of the main concerns about the piece was the smell associated with the preservatives in the wood.
"This is something that isn't in a museum, so I'm interested putting it in a museum and confronting the museum audience with that smell," Hocking said.
One of the main focus points for Hocking when bringing in this exhibition was the transition of people in different walks of life.
"I imagine a lot of the people who work on the railroad never entered this museum," Hocking said. "To me, that's an interesting transition."
Hocking said that if he can make people question what his work is and what it means, then his piece is successful.
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