Words from the Declaration of Independence are stamped into a low brick wall. Between its courses, hair collected from African American salons in Richmond takes the place of mortar. Thirteen rows and a blue mirror recall an inverted American flag, while the mirror brings the viewer into the structure. Sonya Clark’s sculpture joins national language to bodily material, asking whose labour built the country and whose freedom its founding promises excluded.
Location: The Armory Show, Javits Center, New York, USA, 24–27 September 2026. Presented by Goya Contemporary. Artwork made in 2018; video published on 27 September 2026.
Artist: Sonya Clark is an American multidisciplinary artist born in 1967. Working with hair, cloth, combs and other materially charged objects, she examines African diasporic histories, cultural memory and identity through sculpture, installation and performance.
Sources: artwork; 2026 presentation; biography; original video.