“Brush” is artist Hugh Hayden’s untouchable version of a beloved childhood playground.
Photographer: Adrienne Lichliter-Hines/Nasher Sculpture Center
An Artist Reimagines the Spaces of Childhood, With Thorny Results
For “Homecoming,” sculptor Hugh Hayden created a provocative replica of Kidsville, a suburban Dallas example of the wooden playgrounds that flourished in the 1980s.
Bloomberg News has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, with a collection of essays for Bloomberg CityLab by contributor Alexandra Lange. Read the series here.
The first time Hugh Hayden tried to build a playground, his client said no. The sculptor’s pitch to the nonprofit Public Art Fund included a full-size play structure made of wood and covered in thorns. The curators got the point of the piece, titled “America.” The problem was that the prickly playground would have to be fenced off.