Lauren Halsey creates a gleaming new sculpture park for LA

ALL IS FULL OF LOVE

A view of Lauren Halsey's sister dreamer park on Western Avenue in South LA. (Carolina A. Miranda)

I see a lot of art. In it, I find struggle, joy, grief, rage, esoteric mythmaking, intellectual thought experiments, plays on color, sound, and light — not to mention the machinations of the market, with some artists cranking out content to satiate its demands. Some art is eye-catching; a lot of it, rote. But there are those rare occasions in which I find love. Not just art about love, but art that fully embodies its precepts of generosity and affection.

A new sculpture park created by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey in South LA is full of love. Occupying an 11,000-square-foot lot at the intersection of 76th Street and Western Avenue, sister dreamer, lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles, as the installation is poetically called, elegantly fuses the aesthetics of ancient Egypt with contemporary Black culture to pay tribute to the neighborhood where the artist grew up. It also provides a space in which to daydream and to gather, to catch a film or performance, or perhaps even learn how to draw.

“I grew up on Western Avenue, in the area surrounding sister dreamer. It was and still is a beautiful environment, a place and time of joy, genius, and freedom,” Halsey said in a statement upon the park’s unveiling last month. “Throughout my life, many buildings were burned down, abandoned, left empty. Yet what always stood out to me were the people who informally activated these open spaces: selling Christmas trees, running ad-hoc barbecue pop-ups, holding church services, or using it as an ephemeral space to sell hundreds of mix CDs. The community understood that these empty lots could be used for different functions and needs.” Now it is Halsey who has assumed that task — taking what was once a hardscrabble lot (the site of an old ice cream shop that had burned down) and transforming it into a veritable oasis.”

A bas relief by Lauren Halsey shows a lowrider, a sign for Woody's Bar-B-Que, a cartoon bulldog and a protestor holding up a sign that reads "No Justice No Piece"

Halsey's bas reliefs capture the stories and symbols of Black LA. (Carolina A. Miranda)

When you first enter, you might think you’ve been transported to the banks of the Nile. Two rows of four sphinxes and an equal number of Hathoric columns flank a gleaming courtyard containing a fountain and a geometric, open-air structure draped in elaborate bas reliefs. A small garden at the rear of the complex is planted with citrus, pomegranates, and a variety of aromatics. On the day that I visited, the sculptures glistened in the brilliant sunlight. In one corner, a group of children was learning about perspective in drawing; elsewhere, a toddler mischievously dipped his fingers into a fountain. Occasionally, the breeze was perfumed by the scents emanating from the essential oils shop that stands next door (where I later bought a perfume named for Patti LaBelle). “This,” Halsey told me during an interview last year, “is the biggest show of my life.”

It’s a project that has been more than a decade in the making. Born and raised in South LA, Halsey briefly studied architecture before turning to art — completing her undergraduate and graduate studies at CalArts and Yale University, respectively. From the time she was a student, she was intrigued by the idea of designing a space for her community. It was during a 2014-15 residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she found the seed for the project’s visual language. Vendors on Manhattan’s 125th Street, where the museum is located, often sell trinkets inspired by ancient Egyptian art and architecture — pyramids, obelisks, profile images of Nefertiti — a way of linking the broken lineages of the Black American experience to the empires of the African continent. That gesture caught her eye. “I have no interest in being an Egyptologist,” Halsey explained. “It’s about the symbols that Black people take from themselves.”

The sphinxes, along with the bas reliefs that decorate the columns and the temple structure, bear the faces of people the artist knows and admires. (Carolina A. Miranda)

Over the years, the artist has iterated this idea in various forms. At the Studio Museum in 2015, she presented a series of wall pieces resembling ancient bas reliefs that recorded aspects of Black life. For the Hammer Museum’s Made in LA biennial three years later, she created a prototype of a temple-style structure that did the same. In 2023, she presented an even larger installation on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It incorporated a sculpture of a sphinx modeled on her mother.

The project on which she has labored for so many years has finally taken its intended form in LA, and it is glorious: a placid public space for South LA that also honors its inhabitants. Examine the bas reliefs closely and you’ll find images of lowriders, the Watts Towers, graffiti, mini-marts, Black hairdos, and street signage. You’ll also find depictions of neighborhood personalities. This includes the artist’s mother, but also figures such as DJ and entrepreneur Deryl with the Curl, and Susan Burton, who runs a reentry program for women emerging from the penal system. Also honored are the women killed by Lonnie David Frank Jr., the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper. It is a poignant touch: if their visages had once been almost exclusively linked to violent crime, Halsey now associates them with a space of graceful repose.

sister dreamer was a collective effort — presented by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), and designed and executed with the LA architecture firm Current Interests, the landscape design studio Green House, and Taslimi Construction. On LAND’s website, you’ll also find a long list of critical financial supporters, starting with the Mellon Foundation. But it is Halsey’s love for her family, her community, and for capturing the idiosyncrasies of Black life that ultimately gives this remarkable space its form. Hathor, the Egyptian deity for whom Hathoric columns are named, is the goddess representing the sky, women, fertility, and — most importantly— love. In a time of relentless strife, I can think of no better figure to conjure.

💖💖💖

sister dreamer is on view at 76th Street and Western Avenue, dawn to dusk, Wednesday through Sunday, through November 2027. Their website, summaeverythangcc.org/events, has a regularly updated events calendar.

ALL IS FULL OF LOVE

A view of Lauren Halsey's sister dreamer park on Western Avenue in South LA. (Carolina A. Miranda)

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