Scott Conarroe
In recent years, Scott Conarroe (CA) has been continuously travelling to work on projects that focus on the specific geographical, cultural, social and historical landscapes of North America.
In 2007, he undertook a major project in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Windsor (Ontario, CA) that investigates the intrinsic relationship between the automotive industry and the rail infrastructure in North America. Windsor is often referred to as the automotive capital of Canada and is located very close to Detroit, USA, The Motor City. The main employers in Windsor and Detroit are the Chrysler minivan assembly plant and 2 Ford plants. Both cities still have a huge rail infrastructure that caters to the auto industry through the delivery of materials. Ironically, it was once the aim of the automotive industry to render railways obsolete. Not only is the effect of the infrastructure investigated, but also the impact on the population as well as the demand for workers, which led to an influx of a large proportion of workers from ethnic minorities. The project first resulted in a traveling story on the tension between two forms of transportation, world views, and eras, as well the way in which both the railways and the auto industry affect a city or region, displaying the interventions in the landscape, and the impact on urban planning and social structures.
In terms of the proportion of indigenous population to immigrants and their origin, Genk is very comparable to Windsor. Obviously Genk is set in a different geological and psychological context, but the Ford factory is one of the primary employers here as well. Overall, Conarroe plans to realise a photographic study of Genk, the Ford plant, its suppliers and to a lesser extent the railway infrastructure. It is a continuation of the research undertaken in the U.S. and Canada, carried out on the European continent.