MALCOLM PEACOCK, FIVE OF THEM WERE HERS AND SHE CARVED SHELTERS WITH WINDOWS INTO THE BACKS OF THEIR SKULLS, 2024

Photography by Kris Graves/MoMA PS1.

Foam, cement-mix overlay, wood, synthetic hair, and six-channel audio (54 min., 38 sec., looped). 96 inches x 72 inches x 96 inches. This work was created with assistance from Yacine Fall, Godfrey De Silva-Mlotshwa, and JaLeel Marques Porcha.

“The sculpture is at the back of the rectangular gallery. It is tall, wide, and sits vertically on the ground. It is cylindrical in shape, with room on all sides for the visitor to move around the artwork. The central work of Peacock’s exhibition is a sculptural interpretation of a redwood tree trunk with synthetic hair braids forming its bark. It is so realistic in size that it appears as if it was freshly cut and placed in the gallery. As you circle the piece, you will notice two white sheets of paper pinned to the sculpture with a silver, metal tack. The sheets have small printed text and a frayed edge, and are pulled directly from “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley and Malcolm X. Just prior to the Pass Cary Hold exhibition opening night, Peacock pinned these pages to the work. These pages were the final touch, connecting two Black abolitionists across different periods of history.

The work is made with countless half-inch braids assembled from thin strands of synthetic hair, referencing the long tradition of hair braiding in Black communities. The braids are made of many variations of dark brown, dark orange, yellow, green, and white which are batched together to form sections of bark which emerge, spread, and twist to form the trunk, like roots growing from soil. At various ends of the braided bark, tufts of synthetic hair stick out from the sculpture. In many areas of the sculpture, the braids are arranged in a spiral pattern. The braids’ colors are blended into a gradient across the sculpture, and mimic the grooves and ridges of the redwood trees that inspired the sculpture.

Peacock learned to braid as a child from his mother, and through this work, he draws a connection between braiding as an act of care, protection, and bonding, and the resilience and interconnected support systems of Pacific Northwest forests, which Peacock would often visit during the summer.

Peacock is an artist and athlete whose art often utilizes and alternates common physical actions—talking, gazing, braiding, singing, running—to emphasize the states and feelings that accompany being present in proximity to others and one’s self, resulting in works that are at once ephemeral and durational.” - Studio Museum