Lauren Hasley

Drop the Mic

Article: Stephanie Clark Ali; Photo: Sidra Fullerton, Journalist ©2023

You cannot judge a book by its cover upon meeting Lauren Hasley, a thirty-six-year-old, black, South-Central contemporary artist. For academic scholars she is a diplomate of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and Yale University. One can easily underestimate her petite frame, dripped in oversized, street swag in dissonance with down-home vintage in the mix. This interweave of cultural impression is spirited in Hasley’s, Roof Garden exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This commemoration on temples emerged from Hensley’s love for collaging, architecture, and the dream to someday erase the impoverishment of empty parking lots in her urban community. Her official title of this project for the Met is, The East Side of South-Central Los Angeles Hieroglyph Prototype Architecture. The installation is filled with monuments that pay homage to those that impacted her life. A re-mixed of built out spaces as temples made from glass fiber, and reinforced concrete. There are over 750 engravings full of signage, tags, flyers, and information from past documents that are retextured into freestyle compositions holding traces of South Central mixed with fantasy scape, funk and ancient Egypt.

The art installation is well thought-out and constructed as architecture forms of wall and columns scaling high above buildings. Siting at the entrance are the protectors of the space, carved images of her mother, brother, cousin, and life partner as sphinxes. This vision is a dream come true, a space of joy, education, and a way of using Hieroglyphs from the past to tell stories of the twenty-first century.

Works Cited

Slenske, Michael. “Lauren Halsey’s Monumental Moment.” WMagazine. Photographs: Paul Mpagi Sepuya. March 30, 2023. https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/lauren-halsey-artist-met-museum-rooftop-installation

The MET. “Artist Interview–Lauren Hasley: The Roof Garden Commission” Met Exhibitions. YouTube. 2023. 0:01-6:19. https://youtu.be/I4irGrO5ePc

Photographer, Sidra Fullerton, Journalist