The Cosby’s
(2020)
- Medium
- cast iron
- Measurements
- (a-c) 61.0 × 139.6 × 19.3 cm (variable) (installation)
- Place/s of Execution
- New York, New York, United States
- Accession Number
- 2022.20.a-c
- Department
- Contemporary Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by The Fleischner Family Charitable Foundation, 2022
© Hugh Hayden - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
In his practice, Hugh Hayden reconstructs vernacular objects in the American landscape, subverting their utility to question cultural history. The Cosby’s comprises a series of cast iron skillets that have been reimagined as West African masks. Hugh Hayden comments on the cultural impact of the African diaspora on American entertainment, food, industry and society, drawing attention and crediting Black enslaved people working in kitchens with the development of modern American cuisine. Titled The Cosby’s, after the disgraced entertainer, Hayden has stated that The Cosby Show was important to him as a child and asks that we don’t abandon, even discredited, cultural history.