If you were to ask Lauren Halsey what she does in life, she would reply: “I would say I make things.” This statement perfectly captures the essence of her Los Angeles studio, a sprawling, industrial space brimming with an eclectic mix of objects, from vintage leather jackets to neon pink test pieces. “I keep everything – it’s a problem,” she jokes, but her artistic vision knows no bounds. “I want to make festivals. I want to make parades. I want to make stages. I want to make a community centre. I want to make a girls youth basketball court…” The list goes on and on, a testament to her boundless ambition.
Born and raised in South Central LA, where her family has resided for generations, 37-year-old Halsey first garnered widespread recognition with her 2023 site-specific temple on the rooftop garden of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. This monumental work served as a powerful homage to her hometown, drawing inspiration from 1960s utopian architecture and ancient Egypt. Imagine graffiti-etched columns and sphinxes, their faces depicting members of Halsey’s family, including her partner, the multidisciplinary creative Monique McWilliams, and friend Barrington Darius.
Halsey’s artistic approach, seamlessly blending the present with the past, “counters what people think they might know about a place or a people – its history, its environment,” she explains. Like her musical hero George Clinton, who sang of one nation under a groove, Halsey seeks to capture the multifaceted nature of South Central, its vibrant contradictions – “vibrant, funky, violent, sad, happy, underserved, forgotten about, uplifted”, she recites. Her goal is to convey these complexities with a sense of aspiration and awe.
This October, she will transport a piece of South Central to London’s Serpentine for her first solo show in the UK. This exhibition promises to be a “kaleidoscopic, technicolour garden of our material culture”, she says, a place of rest where visitors can “sit and kick it”. Expect tangible elements like “a fountain, full-scale figures, fluorescent sand dunes, mirror and prism elements,” she reveals. Sponsored in part by Dior, this installation promises to be her most captivating work yet.
Yet Halsey’s unwavering dedication to her community remains a constant. Back in LA, she is creating a sculpture park called Sister Dreamer, collaborating with the non-profit Los Angeles Nomadic Division on the site of a former local landmark that was destroyed by fire. She is also actively fundraising to build a community center on her studio lot. Halsey is determined to make a lasting impact.
This is an artist who, after creating a 22ft statue of activist Susan Burton, mused that it would have been 50ft had she been able to afford it. The demands are immense, but so is her ambition. “I just know if I don’t show up for myself,” she declares, “if I don’t show up for my funk, who will?” Lauren Halsey is at Serpentine South from 4 October to 2 March 2025.
