Lauren Halsey's monumental sculpture park opens in South-Central L.A., part of a 'Black renaissance' in art

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Artist Lauren Halsey has built an architectural monument to South Los Angeles — its past, present and future.Her sculpture park, titled “sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles,” opens with a block party Saturday on the corner of Western Avenue and 76th Street.Part meeting place, outdoor classroom and recreation space, “sister dreamer” features eight Egyptian-style Hathoric columns standing nearly 22 feet tall, on which Halsey has swapped the ancient goddess for “hyperlocal” heroes, mentors and family members alongside sphinxes and carved reliefs.The sculptures stand as both witnesses and deities.A large open-air square, which Halsey calls an oculus, contains carvings of neighborhood landmarks, faces, signs and symbols.

Fountains, benches and native plants, along with vegetable and fruit gardens, sit behind a gate, giving the space a sense of calm despite the traffic nearby.The title of the park, which will likely move to a more permanent location in 2027, hints at its feminist underpinnings.An entrance to the park’s central oculus features images honoring female victims of Lonnie David Franklin Jr., known as the Grim Sleeper, a serial killer responsible for the murders of at least 10 Black women in Los Angeles in the 1980s and the early aughts.Halsey said the women’s identities were reduced to billboard images during the investigation of their deaths.The monument seeks to restore dignity to their memory while also celebrating community leaders such as Margaret Prescod, founder of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, Robin Daniels of the nonprofit Sisters of Watts, and Rosie Lee Hooks, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus.Entertainment & Arts The Times has the first look at the renderings for artist Lauren Halsey’s ‘sister dreamer’ monument and sculpture park, built...