Lauren Halsey: emajendat

This book was published on the occasion of Lauren Halsey: emajendat at Serpentine, London, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom. Inspired by South Central Los Angeles, Halsey archives and remixes the signs and symbols of her community to celebrate its vitality, pride, and resilience, and as an act of creative resistance to its growing gentrification. Conceived as an immersive installation, emajendat transformed Serpentine South Gallery into a “Funk garden” that responds to the building’s location in Kensington Gardens, offering an extension of the park into the galleries. Central to the exhibition are life-size versions of Halsey’s signature vignettes, which are usually seen in miniature within sculptures or as intricately arranged tableaux.

The extensive volume includes images of Halsey’s stand-alone works and installations from 2018 through 2024, alongside texts analyzing the artist’s practice by Will Alexander, LeRonn P. Brooks, George Clinton, Harmony Holiday, Douglas Kearney, and Bettina Korek. A conversation between the artist, Lizzie Carey-Thomas, and Hans Ulrich Obrist and a foreword by Obrist and Korek are also included.