Domestic Sculptures Formed With Wood Grown at the United States and Mexico Border by Hugh Hayden
Texas-born sculptor Hugh Hayden (previously) combines different varieties of wood to create furniture and other domestic objects with protruding spikes and branches. For his latest exhibition Border States at Lisson Gallery in New York City, Hayden addresses notions of citizenship and boundaries with sculptures made using wood indigenous to the United States and Mexico border. The traditional family ideals of the American Dream are evoked in objects such as a dining room table, picket fence, and child’s stroller, yet their source material speaks to the contentious practices upheld at our nation’s border.
Eastern Red Cedar, a wood from Texas with a pinkish interior, composes The Jones Part 3, a fence covered in branches that reach out at the audience from its vertical slats. “Texas Ebony,” a dark wood that grows at the border, composes another sculpture, while the weed-like Mesquite forms a kitchen table and chairs titled America.
Hayden currently lives and works in New York City. Border States runs at Lisson Gallery through October 27, 2018. You can see more of his politically-minded sculptures on his website and Instagram.
