Watch now: Hugh Hayden – The New Social Environment with The Brooklyn Rail

3 August 2020

On Tuesday 4 August Hugh Hayden discussed recent work with editor, Dr. Julie Reiss in a live online conversation as part of The Brooklyn Rail's ongoing series The New Social Environment.

Hugh Hayden transforms familiar materials to challenge our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the environment. Raised in Texas and trained as an architect, his work arises from a deep connection to nature and its organic materials. By transforming familiar objects to challenge human perception, Hayden investigates how we view ourselves and our surroundings. He utilizes wood as his primary medium, frequently loaded with multi-layered histories in their origin, including objects as varied as discarded trunks, rare indigenous timber, Christmas trees, or souvenir African sculptures. Hayden’s work questions the stasis of social dynamics and asks the viewer to examine their place within an ever-shifting ecosystem.

Dr. Julie Reiss is an art historian who directs a Master’s program at Christie’s Education. Julie has presented papers and chaired panels on issues related to art and climate change at conferences including the College Art Association and the Conference for the Council for European Studies. She is the author of From Margin to Center: The Spaces of Installation Art (1999) and the editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene (2018).

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Image: Hugh Hayden, Can't we all just get along? (2020) Hornbeam with steel hardware and oak dowels