Viewing Lauren Halsey: emajendat at Serpentine Gallery

Visitors to the Serpentine South Gallery will find an unexpected transformation: for Lauren Halsey’s first solo exhibition in the UK, the Californian artist has created a ‘funk garden’, responding to the surroundings of Kensington Garden and bringing the outside in.

That translates to a range of mediums arranged in a genuinely immersive display that includes sand dunes, a prismatic floor and walls made from CD’s, as well as a live water fountain. There are also maxi versions of her mini sculptures, usually arranged in intricate tableau, here scaled up to life-size. These installations are also blueprints for Halsey’s dream project: to build a sculpture park in her neighbourhood in Los Angeles, South Central.

Halsey is also known for the community centre she founded in South Central in 2019 – Summaeverythang – ‘dedicated to the empowerment and transcendence of Black and Brown folks socio-politically, economically, intellectually and artistically.’ Much of Halsey’s work relates back to South Central, where her family has resided for generations, and its community, capturing its vitality.