Hugh Hayden's multimedia exhibition serves food for thought
A virtual tour of the Texan artist’s latest exhibition at Lisson Gallery, which ties together African histories and the American South
![Honorary Natives and the elephant in the middle of the room](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eg765LF6L3UDxVqVixm9yS-415-80.jpg)
Hugh Hayden has a lot to offer the new decade. A few weeks after the opening of his solo exhibition ‘Creation Myths’ in New Jersey, the Texas-born and New York-based artist has unveiled another new show, capturing the symbolism of cooking and communal eating in America.
Held in London’s Lisson Gallery, ‘American Food’ comprises a range of culinary-themed installations, which invite visitors to ‘develop a consciousness of their environment’ while challenging their perceptions of contemporary society.
Hugh Hayden, The Cosby’s, 2020, cast iron 3 skillets.
These themes are laid out in the first installation, a multimedia ‘stove’ with speakers in place of hobs, playing a recording of Hayden cooking and eating bacon, a fundamental ingredient of Southern food. The soundtrack offers both an intimate culinary moment with the artist, and an evocative backdrop to Hayden’s exploration of Southern culture and its spread across America.
Explore Hugh Hayden's exhibition in 360°
Courtesy of GalleriesNow
The next space is lined with a series of ‘skillets’, West African-style masks cast in frying pans, an intelligent commentary on African input in the development of Southern cuisine. This work also alludes to the paradoxical combination of old and new: each mask assumes a new character that the artist has created and abstracted through old sand-casting techniques.
RELATED STORY
‘Twig 450’ table, £1,320, by Russell Pinch, for Pinch. ‘Ombra’ dessert plate in Ardesia, £31, by Laboratorio Castello, from The Conran Shop. Entertaining Director: Melina Keays Interiors: Jacqui Scalamera
The exhibition continues with two mosaic-like wall installations using Jiffy corn muffin mix packaging. Jiffy is one of America’s most popular brands of readymade cornbread, a food closely identified with Southern cuisine. ‘I always thought most cornbreads that I had, growing up in Dallas, were fairly dry and just not my thing’ he admits. He’s since set out to reinvent the dish: following ‘internet sleuthing and weekly recipe trials’, he arrived at a cornbread pudding recipe for Wallpaper’s Artist’s Palate series, which can now be found on the back page of our April issue (W*253, available as a free download here).
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Hugh Hayden, The ease of forgetting, 2020, Cardboard boxes, wooden panels.
In his Lisson show, Hayden also presents a new series of three picnic tables – similar to those seen outside pubs in the UK – enhanced by jutting branches and spikes that are at once threatening and playful. The tables are intricately carved from Hornbeam and Chestnut. The artist has kept each branch largely as it would have grown. These striking installations use wood as a metaphor for identity and boundaries and bring the artist’s architectural background and deep interest in history to the fore.
Hugh Hayden, Jazz 10, 2020, cast iron.
INFORMATION
‘American Food’, opened at Lisson Gallery, London on 12 March. It is temporarily closed to the public. lissongallery.com
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published