Hugh Hayden Crafts the Legacy of the African Diaspora – Art in America

12 August 2020

You could be forgiven for mistaking Hugh Hayden’s exhibition 'American Food' recently on view at Lisson Gallery in London, as a response to the tumult of 2020. The largest works, three full-size picnic tables, bristle with surrealistic outgrowths: branches left in their natural state or trimmed and smoothed off, or tapered. In the most striking example, titled 'Honorary Natives and the elephant in the middle of the room', they’re carved into sharp projections, like tusks or giant thorns. Step too close, and you could be impaled. Talk about social distancing: this is the perfect furniture for a pandemic.

Click here to read Glen Adamson's full review of Hugh Hayden's American Food via ARTnews.com

Image: Hugh Hayden, Communion, 2020
Chestnut with steel hardware