Hugh Hayden: the End 

Production | Exhibition Grant

As part of Ground/work 2025, an outdoor exhibition themed around global craft practices, the Clark Art Institute has commissioned the End, a new large-scale sculpture by artist Hugh Hayden. Crafted from cedar lumber and hemlock trees uniquely milled to preserve protruding branches, the work takes the shape of an enormous ribcage, evoking the remains of a massive, mysterious creature.

the End touches on ecological themes of climate change and extinction, expanding on two prevalent motifs in Hayden’s work: skeletal forms and camouflage. For Hayden, the skeleton is a recurring symbol, as he is drawn to its anonymizing quality, stripped as it is of external indicators of identity such as race or gender. Installed in a wooded area on the Clark’s campus, adjacent to a walking path, the work blends into its surroundings. Camouflaged within the very woods from which its materials were sourced, Hayden’s gargantuan, anthropomorphized tree carcass may cause viewers to wonder what kind of being left behind such unique remains and prompt further consideration of the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.

For more information, visit www.clarkart.edu/exhibition/detail/ground-work-2025