Diabou Hubbard

Lives and works in Dakar, Senegal and Richmond, VA

Artist statement

Rooted in my interest in hidden bureaucracies shaping the household, I manipulate domestic structures by deconstructing and sculpting them to create forms that resist their original utility. These sculptural modifications serve as a physical manifestation of my resistance to inherited systems and the unspoken rules that shaped my relationship to the home. Using wood, metal, plastic and sand, I translate lived experiences from my family life into physical shapes that reflect the shifting nature of Senegalese traditions across generations. I reimagine the vernacular of the home and consider how architecture, materials and the layout of the objects in space can embody social hierarchies and the ways I identify particular moments from memories I revisit. Doing so, I capture the essence of these experiences, question how presumed purposes are gained, lost, or transformed and emphasize the instability of the social dynamics that shape my relationships to family, tradition, identity and memory.

Artwork