Artwork
#schooling
#set up
#public artwork
#sculpture
#wooden
February 4, 2022
Grace Ebert
4 lawns in New York’s Madison Sq. Park are actually websites of a sprawling and insightful public set up by artist Hugh Hayden. On view via April 24, “Brier Patch” is comprised of 100 small wraparound desks organized in neat grids evocative of an elementary classroom. Every cedar sculpture is distinct with barren, bark-covered branches bursting from their seats or tabletops, making a snarled explosion of limbs and twigs that’s not possible to permeate.
Much like his thorny eating units in materials and aesthetic, the metaphorical works converse to the inequities of schooling and cite the inherent limitations to achievement. The set up’s title references the tangled mass of prickly vegetation, an setting that’s solely hospitable to some. It additionally attracts on the tales of the trickster Br’er Rabbit, a folklore custom that originated in West and Southern Africa earlier than being repackaged as Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus tales. In these tales, the rabbit outwits his foes and finds refuge within the largely inaccessible thicket.
Along with “Brier Patch,” Hayden’s Boogey Males, a solo present responding to cultural points and a harsh political setting, is on view via April 17 in Miami. Discover extra of the Dallas-born artist’s works on his web site and Instagram.
#schooling
#set up
#public artwork
#sculpture
#wooden
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