Lauren Halsey (American, b. 1987)
Installation view of The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey, *the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I)*, 2022
© Lauren Halsey. Courtesy of the artist; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Hyla Skopitz

Written by Wenjie (Demi) Zhao

On April 18, 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden unveiled an impressive architectural intervention by Lauren Halsey - a monumental commission that channels ancient history through the lens of Afrofuturism and simultaneously documents the vitality of her South Central Los Angeles neighborhood. This artistic engagement will remain on view through October 22, 2023, a testament to Halsey’s prowess in challenging the traditional boundaries of art, architecture, and community engagement.

The centerpiece of Halsey’s creation is a towering 22-foot-high cube, crafted from over 750 glass-fiber-reinforced concrete tiles. This robust structure, surrounded by four columns and four sphinxes, embodies a complex fusion of historical narratives from ancient Egypt and contemporary South Central Los Angeles. The visitors can explore a multitude of connections, ranging from ancient Egyptian symbolism, utopian architecture of the 1960s, to contemporary visual expressions like tagging - reflecting an aspiration to claim public spaces.

The cube’s exterior surfaces serve as a canvas for a rich tapestry of text and imagery, forming a dense collage drawn from the vernacular signs, symbols, and texts observed in Halsey’s historically Black neighborhood. These visual elements, reminiscent of hieroglyphs, create a powerful architectural container of community archives and histories. It is a testament to the artist’s skillful adaptation of ancient Egyptian architectural elements for a contemporary context, amplifying the potent dynamism of South Central Los Angeles’ built environment.

Halsey’s work is both an homage to her roots and a powerful statement on civic space and social activism. She explores the past while also delving into a space of speculative imagination, giving rise to a form of architecture that reconsiders community engagement possibilities. As such, her commission at The Met is a compelling, three-dimensional fusion of past, present, and future, of local and global narratives.

Born in 1987, Lauren Halsey is recognized for reimagining art and architecture’s potential to drive community engagement. With her roots deeply embedded in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, her work is a mix of found, fabricated, and handmade objects. It is a celebration of free-flowing imagination and civic urgency, reflecting the life and struggles of people of color, queer populations, and the working class.

Halsey’s work also reflects the aesthetics of her local environment while engaging with larger social issues such as gentrification and disenfranchisement. Inspired by Afrofuturism, funk, and the vernacular expressions of her neighborhood, Halsey’s installations are a testament to a radical, collaborative cultural vision.

Halsey’s commission for The Met is more than a mere architectural installation; it is a narrative powerhouse conflating diverse narratives. It not only documents and commemorates her community but also serves as a call to action – a call for recognizing and appreciating the vibrant creativity of local communities and exploring the transformative potential of public spaces.

Jun 7 Lauren Halsey | The MET Roof Garden

Jun 8 Candida Höfer | Room to Breathe

Jun 6 Rich-Jospeh Facun

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