Untitled

Lauren Halsey was born and raised in Los Angeles, where she still lives and works, and her practice considers the relationship between architecture and community-building in urban centers and beyond. Halsey received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts, in 2012, and MFA from Yale University, in 2014. For the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Halsey created an architectural installation in 2018 that was one part of a larger project titled The Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project. The Hammer installation was an architectural prototype for a mastaba-like structure Halsey intends to build on Crenshaw Boulevard on a site that formerly held an African bazaar, which she frequented as a child. Made of plywood and gypsum, what she notes is “a mineral that has been used in the construction of major structures for thousands of years, including in the pyramids of Ancient Egypt” the panels that make up the structure sample and reinterpret ancient hieroglyphic writing. In her structure, Halsey has inscribed by hand symbols and icons of her own community and neighborhood in South Central including portraits of loved ones and signposts from the locale. The work we are acquiring is one such panel.