American artist Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) has been commissioned to create a site-specific installation for The Met's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Halsey will create a full-scale architectural structure imbued with the collective energy and imagination of the South Central Los Angeles Community where she was born and continues to work. Titled the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), the installation is designed to be inhabited by The Met’s visitors, who will be able to explore its connections to sources as varied as ancient Egyptian symbolism, 1960s utopian architecture, and contemporary visual expressions like tagging that reflect the ways in which people aspire to make public places their own.
Supported by
Additional support is provided by The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation, the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, and Vivian and Jim Zelter.
The catalogue is made possible by the Mary and Louis S. Myers Foundation Endowment Fund.
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Go behind the scenes with artist Lauren Halsey, who discusses the inspiration and making of The Met’s 2023 Roof Garden Commission.
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Exhibition Catalog
Exhibition Catalogue
Lauren Halsey's diverse artistic influences, including Afrofuturism, ancient Egyptian iconography, and the architecture and community in her native Los Angeles, inform her latest site-specific installation.