A special exhibition at Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum featuring a work that was commissioned for its largest gallery is closing soon.
COMPLEX DREAMS opened at the Broad Art Museum in September of 2024. Artist Esmaa Mohamoud was invited to create a new work for the Julie and Edward J. Minskoff Gallery, the Broad’s largest available space.
Museum Interim Director Steven Bridges curated COMPLEX DREAMS.
“This series is really based around the idea of accentuating and responding to the incredible architectural spaces, the galleries of this Zaha Hadid-designed building that we occupy, and inviting artists to make works specifically for these environments," Bridges said.
Mohamoud says when she was approached for this project, she considered the unique qualities of the space.
The hall, with its unconventional angles and large windows facing Grand River Avenue, was a direct inspiration.
The result is a piece with three main elements: a sculpture of a young Black girl, a tall fence decorated with a variety of plant life and thousands of butterflies hanging from the ceiling.
In an interview with WKAR-TV, Mohamoud said the girl is meant to look like herself when she was 11 years old, complete with baggy overalls, hair knockers and gold hoop earrings.
“She’s doing this pose, which is actually how I naturally stand,” she said "[Her arms are] actually wings of the butterfly, so she’s ever so slightly leaning forward as if she’s going to take off, much like the butterfly outside.”
While 18 feet high, the fence is only ten feet wide.
The idea is that while it would be tough to climb over it, it would be easy to walk around it. But Mohamoud says there’s a psychological barrier preventing the girl from doing that.
“Seeing that barrier and then seeing there’s freedom on the other side and not being able to get to that is a very unique and frustrating feeling,” Mohamoud said.
“I wanted to make that evocative even in the storytelling. It’s like she can see through and see that there’s butterflies and freedom, but she can’t get there.”
The fence is adorned with 4,500 steel cut plant elements, including dandelions. For Mohamoud, the resiliency of dandelions, springing up no matter how hard you try to keep them down, is reminiscent of the toughness Black Americans must exhibit to get through life.
On the other side of the fence, there are 6,000 steel butterflies, taking flight toward the towering windows of the gallery and the freedom beyond.
Mohamoud points out that if you look at the museum’s peak from the sidewalk, you’ll see that one of those butterflies has made it outside.
“Even to know that one escaped or one had freedom kind of gives you hope.”
COMPLEX DREAMS closes at the Broad Art Museum Saturday, February 15th.
The Broad Art Museum is a financial supporter of WKAR.
