On a chilly Tuesday evening, Boston University Radio and the Rose Art Museum collaborated in curating a public forum and conversation surrounding Hugh Hayden and his collection “Home Work.” The conversation, held at WBUR City Space in Boston on Sept. 24, started promptly at 6 p.m. as journalist and artist Arielle Gray led the conversation surrounding Hayden’s work as it pertains to Black and brown communities. 

Hayden is a visual installation artist who has been featured in the New York Times and The Washington Post. His collection opened at the Rose Art Museum on Sept. 20 and is set to stay up until June 2025. Before he became a surrealist artist, he studied architecture at Cornell University. After he graduated, he attended Columbia University for his Masters in Fine Arts. Hayden’s work in architecture naturally often guides his installations. Wood is his primary medium, often taking the form of public displays and large exhibitions in America and globally. 

Hayden grew up in the majority-minority city of Dallas, Texas which deeply influences his work. Gray mentioned that his work “pulls on threads of his personal life but is not always autobiographical.” The focus of his current exhibition is to craft sculptures out of wood that focus conversations around education. He admitted that while he is not a historian he is “constantly remixing the past and present.”

His work authentically questions the relationship between Black folks and the American Dream. Gray introduced the piece “Gulf Stream” which is a public display in the Boston Navy yard. This piece is an explicit exploration of forced enslavement, the Black struggle for survival and the African Diaspora. Hayden’s “Gulf Stream” was created in direct reference to Winslow Homer’s ‘Gulf Stream’ painting. The 1899 oil painting depicts a young Black man in a small boat fighting the stormy waves and surrounded by sharks. Homer acknowledged the implications of imperialism and the slave trade. Similarly, Hayden also explores themes of the commodification of Black people referencing their commodification through the ship. 

His work is a large boat carved from Atlantic Cedar and White Oak. The intricate details lie on the inside of the boat  — carved into the deck is a skeletal spine. Hayden explained, “The boat is a representation of life, literally. It is a vessel to carry life... and boats are very anthropomorphic in the way they are built as a container.” 

One of his most prominent and largest displays is “Brier Patch,” in which a series of elementary school chairs [are assembled]. These chairs, however, are half-chair and half-tree with branches extending naturally from it. At first sight, one may assume that the branches are affixed in some way to the chairs but they are not. 

“Christmas is a cultural tradition that is really a mass sacrifice of trees” he laughed as he explained he rescued New York City trees. “I would find the ones that lined the streets to use for carving,” Hayden added. The trees often would be discarded so this was not only a way to recycle but a way to transform ordinary objects into extraordinary artworks. Incredibly, this means that each chair is a tree and the branches are completely natural; they are one and the same.

Hayden began creating the “Brier Patch” display during his time earning his MFA at Columbia University. Now it is a traveling set of chairs that portray a complex and layered interpretation of the American Dream. Education, of course, is often seen as the one aspect that can level the playing field. Hayden wants observers to consider the inequity that is faced within the education system for Black individuals.

The use of magical realism and fantasy is also interwoven into his work. “Huff and a Puff” is an installation of a slanted, extremely unstable house that is a one-room replica of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin where he wrote “Walden” in 1845. The dramatic slanted wood and bricks combine the literal with elements of surrealism. During the interview, Hayden talked about the role of magical storytelling in art. 

He delighted the audience, balancing humor and creative energy as Gray asked him about his creative process. One of her questions to Hayden regarded his piece called “Walden,” which is a distorted school chair that emulates a “Huff and a Puff.” “Creating a sculpture that changes perspective as you walk around it was important,” Hayden explained. He noted that not only is there a metaphor around perspective but that he intentionally uses wood to make works that engage the senses of the audience. The slanted chair contains an attached desk on which the outside cover reads “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass” but the inside is a copy of Henry David Thoreau’s book. 

Themes in his works that he mentioned multiple times during the interview were anthropomorphic structures and the use of homogenization. This is illustrated in his work “American Gothic.” This piece is one of the most anthropological in the sense of form. It emulates the original Grant Wood piece in that it contains two figures. However, these two figures in Hayden’s creation are headless skeletons. They are made from wood but also contain farmhand and cleaning objects such as a pitchfork and shovel or a mop and duster to represent the hands or feet on the skeletons. Several aspects of this piece stand out. Hayden mentions that there is a sense of anonymity regarding skeletons, especially if you are unfamiliar. “You do not get a sense of race or class based on a skeleton,” Hayden explained. He centered the conversation around labor, domesticity and pure existence. This piece speaks volumes through its various interpretations. 

The branches, the thorns and the anthropological nature of a skeleton collectively create a conversation around what the American Dream means to different individuals.  “People can see themselves or it exposes them to something they may not understand,” Hayden said of his work as the evening came to a close. The conversations concluded with the themes of the American dream and the ways in which he explores the harsh reality of what it means to try to inhabit such a dream. 

As an artist and journalist myself, my initial reaction to Hayden’s work is that it balances being both unsettling and uncomfortable while also being brilliant and bold. As the interview concluded, I reflected on my own art and what ways socio-political messages are in my own work. Hayden’s work has certainly inspired me to use everyday materials and turn them into a powerful and iconic message. I was not alone in receiving inspiration from the interview. Several attendees took pictures of his work throughout the presentation and a few students had the opportunity to ask questions at the end. The audience seemed equally interested in Hayden’s work now and his impact in the future.