Ghanaian British architect and artist David Adjaye created Asasius III (2023), his very first permanent public sculpture, in front of the Griot Museum of Black History in St Louis, Missouri. Ordered as part of counter public, the city’s triennial civic exhibit, the sculpture is an invitation to engage with the museum that collects, preserves and shares black history and culture. A dedication event and public celebration will take place on July 15 to coincide with the closure of Counterpublic.
Adjaye describes Asasius III as a “Trojan horse” for the museum and the community. “The sculpture acts as a device to draw you in and encourage you to walk through its geometry, to look deeply and differently, and most importantly, to feel those typically invisible layers of excavated earth presented to you,” says Adjaye. The arts journal. “Thus, you first experience the narrative power of the earth, while being unconsciously or more quietly called upon to dig up who you are and your relationship to this community and this museum.”
Construction of David Adjaye’s first permanent public artwork, Asasius III (2023), at the Griot Museum of Black History, St Louis, Missouri. Commissioned by Counterpublic 2023. Photo credit: Papa Blankson.
Organized by Allison Glenn and donated to the museum by counter public co-founder Lee Broughton and his wife, Chrissy Taylor, the sculpture is Adjaye’s third Asase series that takes the form of a maze of curved earthen walls. Marking a significant moment in the career of the highly sought-after architect, whose current list of projects includes the new Princeton University Art Museum and the next Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi—Asasius III is his first permanent public work of art. Adjaye’s fame has already sparked a renewed interest in the region and “the return of an energy around the Griot that hadn’t existed for years”, explains Lois Conley, founder, president and general manager of the museum.
“Asasius III is the kind of project that a small, historically underfunded cultural institution prays for,” adds Conley. “He is not just an art installation. Asasius III affirms the significant impact that art can have on a community. It captures the essence of what “community” once meant. It provides a cultural base where people can find historical inspiration and cultural connection. It is an important anchor that will spur additional investment in an urban community that has been absent from such investment for too long.
Construction of David Adjaye’s first permanent public artwork, Asasius III (2023), at the Griot Museum of Black History, St Louis, Missouri. Commissioned by Counterpublic 2023. Photo credit: Papa Blankson.
In accordance with the mission of counter public, Asasius III aims to create new futures for St Louis. Supported by the Mellon Foundation, the commission includes a two-year full-time fellowship for a color conservator to learn from the St Louis Art Museum curatorial team how to care for, conserve and provide context for the sculpture.
“Working with the Griot has deepened my connection to the city,” said curatorial colleague Ousmane Gaye. “From collaborating with peer institutions to community with local organizers, I have a renewed appreciation for the vibrant stories found throughout this city, especially North St Louis. Arts and culture have a powerful way of making people feel understood and represented.
Gaye also learns how human interactions impact existing public art in St Louis so he can better care for Adjaye’s sculpture. Asasius IIInamed after the word earth in the Twi language, uses rammed earth with materials sourced locally and from the site of the sculpture itself, including the high-quality red clay that makes up the vibrant bricks the town is known for. The use of local materials reflects the history of displacement in St Louis, particularly in the Place St Louis area around the Griot.
Construction of David Adjaye’s first permanent public artwork, Asasius III (2023), at the Griot Museum of Black History, St Louis, Missouri. Commissioned by Counterpublic 2023. Photo credit: Papa Blankson.
“From the mid-19th century plotting of the neighborhood by James O’Fallon, who at the time was Missouri’s largest land and slave owner, to the mansions that once lined St Louis Avenue, which earned the street the name Millionaire’s Row, the Pruitt-Igoe housing estate designed by Minoru Yamasaki and the future site of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s main campus, St Louis Place, and nearby communities, have been the subject of much architectural visions,” says Glenn.
The clay also connects the Griot to the earthly architecture of West Africa and the land where many of the people whose stories are told in the museum originated.
“I hope the takeaways are an appreciation for this extraordinary and abundant material that makes up our environment and sustains us,” says Adjaye. “I believe it embodies both where we came from, as legible documentation of billions of years of evolution, and where we can go, all the way to clay as building material for the future. that we want to live.”
- A unveiling and block party to mark the completion of David Adjaye Asasius III will take place at Griot Museum of Black HistorySt. Louis, Missouri, July 15 at 11 a.m.
