Artwork Description
Stephen Hayes – Five PoundsSeries
Dimensions: 24″ diameter
Year: 2022
Medium: five pounds of shell casings, hydrastone
Stephen Hayes “Five Pounds Series” is thus named because it takes 5 pounds of force to shoot a gun and kill a man. The hands are cast in hydrostone from Hayes’s own, and the background is comprised of spent shell casings.
Born and raised in Durham, Stephen Hayes is currently the Brock Family Visiting Instructor in Studio Arts in Duke’s Art, Art History, and Visual Studies Department. His work has been exhibited in numerous museums throughout the country, and Hayes has been commissioned to create several poignant public artworks. Most recently, the city of Charleston commissioned him to create the first memorial artwork for one of several mass slave graves. His Cash Crop exhibition, based on the Blocke Slave Ship, has toured museums including the African American Museum.