Lauren Halsey // Emajendat

Inspired by the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood that the artist and her family have lived in for generations, Halsey’s expansive practice teems with the signs and symbols that populate that urban landscape and celebrates the community’s vitality and a creative form of resistance to advancing gentrification and the threat of erasure.

The artist’s important work centers the on Black community, both aesthetically and materially.Halsey gathers icons of pride, autonomy, initiative, and resilience from local vernacular sources recontextualizing and reinterpreting them for her utopic fantasies of the city. Both celebrating Black cultural expressions and archiving them, her work–which includes wall works, massive multiroom installations, and immersive outdoor environments–is a potent reminder of the importance of community and home.

Beyond the signs and symbols of contemporary South Central, Halsey employs the iconography of ancient Egypt as a means to reclaim lost legacies, drawing inspiration from Afrofuturism–a transcultural movement blending science fiction with aspects of Black art and culture–and the utopian architecture proposed in the 1960s by Archigram and Superstudio.

Born in Los Angeles in 1987,Lauren Halseyhas been the subject of solo exhibitions and has been featured in group exhibitions around the world.Hans Ulrich Obristis the artistic director of the Serpentine, London.Lizzie Carey-Thomasis chief curator of the Serpentine, London.Bettina Korekis CEO of the Serpentine, London.Dr. LeRonn P. Brooksis associate curator at the Getty Research Institute.Harmony Holidayis a writer, dancer, and experimental filmmaker.Will Alexanderis a poet, novelist, playwright, artist, pianist, and philosopher.Douglas Kearneyis an interdisciplinary writer, librettist, poet, and performer.George Clinton revolutionized music and performance through the pioneering work of Parliament-Funkadelic.

• Publisher:Rizzoli Electa
• Publish Date: November 26, 2024
• Pages: 224
• Dimensions: 9.2 X 11.2 X 0.8 inches | 2.7 pounds
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9780847847815
• BISAC Categories: Individual Artists – Monographs, Sculpture & Installation, American – African American