‘Hugh Hayden: Home Work’ explores the inaccessibility of the American Dream

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

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Nature and societal nurture collide in “Hugh Hayden: Home Work,” a sprawling exhibit on view now at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The artist’s intricate, handcrafted practice uses woodworking, metalsmithing, and natural and found materials to create sculptures that explore the fallacy of the belief that hard work trumps all, particularly in a system built to exclude communities of color.

This extensive show, Hayden’s first in New England, takes over the entire downstairs of the museum. It includes work from the last decade, but many pieces are recent or even newly minted and on display for the first time.

Artist Hugh Hayden in his studio, 2020. PHOTO: WILLIAM JESS LAIRD, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

“All of my work is about the American dream, whether it’s a table that’s hard to sit at or a thorny school desk,” says Hayden in a statement. “It’s a dream that is seductive but difficult to inhabit.”

“Home Work” is co-curated by Dr. Sarah Montross, chief curator of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Dr. Gannit Ankori, the Henry and Lois Foster director and chief curator of the Rose Art Museum and professor of fine arts and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Brandeis University.

Hayden’s works show the trappings of the American dream, including education, home ownership and climbing the corporate ladder, but his objects illustrate that these goals are less accessible than they appear, particularly for marginalized communities. His hand-carved wooden ladders have axes growing out of them, preventing climbing; his school chairs are intertwined with thick, dangerous branches that keep anyone from sitting for class.

Installation view, Hugh Hayden: Home Work, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. PHOTO: JULIA FEATHERINGILL, COURTESY ROSE ART MUSEUM

“Hayden’s unique, meticulously crafted sculptures and moving installations evoke poignant reflections and visceral responses pertaining to the human condition within a complex, volatile and often threatening world,” says Ankori.

One of several striking centerpieces is “Hedges,” a 2019 installation that shows a wooden house encased by threatening branches that appear to grow from the structure, ready to pierce anyone who dares entry. The piece demonstrates clearly and dramatically the barriers to homeownership, one of the pillars of the traditional American dream that’s increasingly out of reach for younger generations and minority populations.

The sculpture is situated in a three-sided mirror structure that viewers can step into. This brings viewers into the space and makes them part of the sculpture, while creating the illusion that there is a whole street of homes like this, expanding on either side, a never-ending cycle.

Hugh Hayden, Brier Patch, 2018. Sculpted fir with plywood and hardware (6 desks). Dimensions variable. © Hugh Hayden; Courtesy of Lisson Gallery.

Art & the Landscape, an initiative of The Trustees, commissioned a piece by Hayden for the deCordova in 2023. “Huff and Puff” is a dramatically slanted replica of the cabin where Henry David Thoreau wrote “Walden.”

This piece connects to a new sculpture included in “Home Work” depicting a slanted school chair with an attached desk. On it rests a book. The cover of the book shows the title “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,” but when flipped open it reveals the text to “Walden” on the inside. The piece offers a commentary on what’s valued in the educational space and the way inclusivity and diverse histories may be showcased more performatively than academically.

“Hayden’s work expresses psychological impact through scale, methods of illusion, doubling and distortion,” says Montross. “His practice suggests a collapse between self-taught and fine-art training, while also prioritizing visual culture, vibrant music and culinary traditions of the African diaspora.”

“Home Work” is on view at the Rose Art Museum on the Brandeis University campus through June 1, 2025. Admission is always free to all.