The impactful black and white Step and Screw series began with a single idea — for Hancock’s alter ego, Torpedo Boy to come up against one of Philip Guston’s ineffectual Klansmen characters. Hancock sees Guston as a ‘grandfather character’ in his artistic practice, someone he has looked up to.

“I feel like my character Torpedo Boy has gone through a similar kind of metamorphoses over time [as Guston’s Klansmen character] and it would only make sense that my avatar and Philip Guston’s [avatar], I would describe it as one of his avatars, would meet up.” (Hancock, 2020)

This initial one-time experiment developed into a compelling visual essay exploring white supremacy, expanding to include organisations such as the police and organised religion. In this body of work Hancock confronts racial injustice, drawing from his own upbringing in North Texas and the political history of racism in the American South. This personal exploration opens up a deep discussion of culture, race and power.

Step and Screw: Stick Up (2021) depicts Torpedo Boy and a police officer in a confrontation. Hancock’s title is subversive, a ‘stick up’ would usually refer to a criminal robbing someone at gunpoint. Here, the police officer is the villain in their aggressive action. This powerful, large-scale work is loaded with imagery and is rendered in black fur adding to its depth. This bold political commentary comes from Hancock’s experience and his wider perceptions on the way the Black community is treated by the police.