Celestial Ship of the North (Emergency Ark) aka Barnboat (2015)

Celestial Ship of the North (Emergency Ark) aka Barnboat, involved disassembling a rapidly deteriorating gothic-style 1890s barn, and re-building it to create a boat-like, free-standing sculpture. Based on ideas of archaic vessels, alchemical symbolism, destruction myths, duality and deluge stories - and shaped by the site's history and the Thumb’s incredibly consistent winds - the Barnboat was built over the course of 3-months, and made entirely from the beams and boards of the collapsing 1890s barn that stood in its place. It’s an object that reorients time-tested materials from their former context and turns them into something entirely different. Constructed on Goretski Family farmland, the piece will continue to change and decay over time, just as the barn it was made from did.

Scott Hocking was born in Redford Township, Michigan in 1975. He creates site-specific installations, sculptures and photography projects, often using found materials and neglected locations. Inspired by subjects ranging from ancient mythologies to current events, his artworks focus on transformation, ephemerality, chance, and the cycles of nature. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Art Museum (2022/23 midcareer retrospective), the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the School of the Art Institute Chicago, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Mattress Factory Art Museum (Pittsburgh), the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Kunst-Werke Institute (Berlin), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), and the French Triennial Renaissance (Lille). He has received multiple awards, including a Kresge Artist Fellowship and an Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, as well as residential grants in France, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and throughout the United States. 

This installation is on private property. Please stay away from, and off of, the structures. Property owners are not responsible for personal injury.