Abigail Lucien: Blood of the Earth

Lucien’s artistic practice has long focused on iron—a mineral born from the explosion of stars that forms the molten core of the Earth and is essential to human life. Not only does iron course through our blood, but it also permeates the world around us—in everyday objects, technologies, and the built environment. Iron shape-shifts across terrestrial and celestial scales, and with this exhibition, Lucien probes its narrative and social potential.

In the Caribbean, ornate iron gates and grilles adorn ordinary buildings, and in Africa, the iron forge is considered a sacred space of creation. In their sculptural works, Lucien sustains these lineages of artistry and expression, engaging processes, typologies, and iconography that acknowledge craft traditions and diasporic experience. 

For their solo exhibition Blood of the Earth, Lucien presents a series of new sculptural works in an immersive installation, conceived as a speculative space of creation and possibility. These objects include a furnace, bellows, anvil, and other tools that evoke an active metalsmithing workshop animated by the life force of iron. Iron becomes malleable and viscous when heated and can be forged, welded, and poured into molds. It can also be etched through chemical treatment and turned into steel by adding carbon. These transformative processes—which Lucien used to create the objects on view—embody the adaptability and transitory nature of belonging. 

Abigail Lucien: Blood of the Earth is curated by Irene Sunwoo, John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design.

Special thanks to the Sculpture Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for its collaboration in fabricating a selection of works. Additional thanks to Desmond Lewis and Theaster Gates Studio.

A forthcoming book on Lucien’s project will be published by Small Editions, with support from the Hunter College Research Foundation and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.