Having long focused on unpacking ideals of the “American Dream,” the Texas-born artist remixes his upbringing in the American South to delve into church, sports, school, and hair and how they factor into cultural expectations. His latest solo exhibition is split into a trinity of rooms: a barber shop turned sanctuary, a basketball chapel, and a crypt, all of which play host to his meticulously sculpted, sawed, and woven objects in wicker, vine, and ebony. One particularly standout piece is a basketball hoop handwoven out of hair, rattan, and vine, which reimagine the peacock chairs that appeared throughout Hayden’s childhood and pay homage to the 1967 portrait of Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton seated in one.
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