Detroit Design Festival Kicks Off with Speech by South African Artist

South African artist Stephen Hobbs will give tonight's keynote speech to help kick off Detroit Design Festival. The South African artist uses his work to critique the kind of urban planning that makes places like his native Johannesburg feel more like battlefields than like home. His videos, installations, photographs and sculpture "examine the precarious state of cities undergoing radical physical change," according to the Detroit Design Festival organizers, the Detroit Creative Corridor Center. Hobbs' work sometimes incorporates whole buildings, and his use of techniques from wartime camouflage painting create an impact that is both unsettling and arresting.

Hobbs will speak at the end of Day 1 of Design Fest as part of the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series, in collaboration with the University of Michigan Penny Stamps School of Art and Design. Hobbs' talk takes place this evening, Tuesday, Sept 22 at 6 pm at the Detroit Film Theater, 5200 Woodward Ave. The talk is both part of the Stamps series and is also a keynote lecture for Design Fest. Hobbs will discuss defensive architecture.

Detroit Design Festival continues through Sept 26. Highlights include Eastern Market After Dark (Thursday) and a popup Design Village sponsored by Dwell Magazine (Friday and Saturday).

·Keynote Lecture: Defensive Architecture [Detroit Design Festival]
·Bio and CV for Stephen Hobbs [Stephen Hobbs.net]
·Detroit Design Festival Announces Lineup [Curbed Detroit]
·Schedule [Detroit Design Festival]