Cash Crop Exhibit at the YMI Cultural Center

Cash Crop, an installation by Stephen Hayes.  Photo: Urban News
Cash Crop, an installation by Stephen Hayes. Photo: Urban News

A MUST SEE! Now through August 27, 2014

Cash Crop is a powerful exhibition about the transatlantic slave trade and engages us in a much larger conversation about today’s metaphorical cash crops.

Stephen Hayes’s installation of fifteen life-size figures encourages viewers to imagine themselves squeezed into a hull of a ship crossing the Atlantic and then asks one to consider what can be done to stop today’s human rights violations. In a printmaking class, Hayes encountered an image of a slave ship diagram. Thus began a process that would eventually lead to his installation, Cash Crop.

Coupled with a predisposition for three-dimensional objects which began in his youth – his parents would bring him old machine and computer parts — the work of this young artist suggests a creative mind that has a unique insight into the emotional holds of people. Cash Crop invites viewers to walk into an emotional, physical and psychic space to confront the past, present, and future.

Admission is FREE. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Special viewing for groups of six or more. Call (828) 257-4540 and leave a message with the time you would like to come or email [email protected].