Lauren Halsey. Too Blessed 2 be Stressed!

Using her hometown, South-Central LA, as the starting point, Lauren Halsey draws inspiration from memory—both personal and collective—from Ancient Egyptian “mythmaking,” and from contemporary African-American experience. Her work borrows elements from Funk, Post-Civil rights aesthetics, Hip-hop, Architecture, and Afrofuturism.

For Open Space #5, the artist designed a site-specific work, a fantastical landscape, Too Blessed 2 be Stressed! This immersive, surrealist-tinged installation is composed of plants, coloured lights, and geological modules. These modules, called "Funk Mounds" are of various shapes and sizes and are filled with cavities into which the artist has arranged objects that she collected in Paris and South Central LA, from a plurality of vernacular cultures among those of the African diaspora. Creating new connections across borders and eras, these futuristic “reliquaries” are receptacles of living memory, one that the artist continuously nurtures. The installation is accompanied with a soundtrack, a Funk Manifesto, written and read by the artist herself.

Born in 1987, Lauren Halsey is based in Los Angeles (CA, USA). She graduated from Yale University and Cal Arts. Her works have been presented within the context of a solo show at the MOCA, Los Angeles in2018 and group shows (Made in L.A., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2018), among others. She was recently awarded the Mohn Award (2018) and the Frieze Artist Award (2019).

Curated by Ludovic Delalande & Claire Staebler, Open Space is a programme dedicated to the most contemporary artistic expressions. International artists are invited to create a specific project for the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Open Space takes place regularly in different settings around Frank Gehry’s building. Launched in April 2018, this programme has already hosted solo exhibitions of Jean-Marie Appriou (1986-FR), Matt Copson (1992-UK), Anna Hulačová (1984-CZ), Hoël Duret (1988-FR).

More info: https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/fr/expositions/exposition/open-space-5-lauren-halsey.html