Suzanne Chessler

Above:

Special to the Jewish News

Linda Powers,

Marsha Miro and
Julie Taubman, all
of Bloomfield Hills,

and Burt Aaron

of Ann Arbor sit
atop an untitled

temporary sculpture
by Scott Hocking

at a fund-raiser

for the soon-to-be-
completed Museum

of Contemporary
Art Detroit.

I

nnovative artist Scott

Hocking spent two weeks
collecting old tires dumped
in Motor City neighborhoods and
delivered them to the grounds
of a Bloomfield Hills home, the
place where. he really got busy.
Hocking configured 2,200
tires into a pyramid-like shape,
turning them into an untitled
temporary sculpture and making
a statement for a fund-raiser in
support of the soon-to-be-com-
pleted Museum of Contemporary
Art Detroit (MOCAD).
Art enthusiasts gathered mid-
May at the home of Julie and
Robert Taubman and took note
of Hocking's project as they dis-
cussed the anticipated impact
of the art center when it opens

in" October. They learned that
the tires would be picked up for
recycling, perhaps symbolic of
the recycling of the building at
4454 Woodward, the address of a
former auto dealership about to
become a hub for exhibits, work-
shops, research and talk.
"MOCAD is an idea, I believe,
whose time has come says
volunteer director Marsha Miro,
who has promoted this initiative
for years. "Every major city in
this country — and many cit-
ies smaller than Detroit — have
museums of contemporary art.
The concept is important and
proven.
"The museums have continued
to exist in these communities
because they can be, in some
ways, much more lively institu-
tions than encyclopedic muse-
ums. They're less formal, and
they have more open programs

in terms of people coming and
going. They•have the ability to be
a little more edgy"
Miro furthered her idea for
the museum by organizing a
focus group last year. She guided
participants through the space
anticipated for the art center and
pointed out that the location is
close to Detroit's cultural gather-
ing places, with Detroit Artists
Market, CPop Art Gallery and the
Whitney restaurant nearby.
Although reluctant to reveal
the preliminary financial specif-
ics, enough funds were raised
to lease the building from the
Manoogian Foundation and plan
initial exhibits.

Cutting Edge
"It's the kind of place where you
can invite artists to do installa-
tions:' says Miro, an arts writer
who has been active with Temple

Beth El. "Artists can throw paint
on the walls and build large
pieces that eventually would be
collapsed.
"Andrew Zago, who has offices
in Detroit and New York, is the
architect working with the 21,000
square feet of open space."
-
Installations actually will
be the core of the debut show,
"Meditations in an Emergency,"
which opens Oct. 27. Nine art-
ists, working with curator Klaus
Kertess, will communicate their
reactions to the difficult experi-
ences of natural disasters and
acts of violence.
"One of the artists, Nari Ward,
was interested in the way the
ceiling tiles were falling down
and disintegrating in the build-
ing," Miro says. "The mate-
rial became like sand and took

Art Magnet on page 70