“It’s a typical suburban home that looks familiar,” Ankori said. “But then it’s scary and threatening and uncanny.”

There was that word again: mysterious. It is common to hear people describe Hayden’s work in unfamiliar terms. But the Texas-born artist sees these reactions as evidence of something like empathy.

“Sometimes being aware of another person’s lived experience and the absurdity or difficulty of it feels so foreign to you that that’s your response,” Hayden said in an interview during a visit to Boston for the opening of the Rose exhibition. humorous or enigmatic.”

Hayden is a gregarious conversationalist who laughs easily and goes off on odd tangents. But his work betrays an unorthodox focus and attention to detail. The artist, who worked as an architect for a while, adds a similar meticulousness to his sculptures. Their pieces are meticulously handcrafted; so that a branch or thorn emerging from a piece of furniture is an organic growth, with no hardware or stitching to disrupt the impression of unity.

Hayden has recently turned her attention to the human form; He carved elegant wooden replicas of the human skeleton, although always modified in some unexpected or disturbing way. One of the newest sculptures on display at the Rose, “American Gothic,” features two skeletons side by side in an absurd reference to Grant Wood’s famous painting; the limbs of the skeletons turn into tools used in household or garden work – a shovel, a shovel. feather duster, toilet plunger.

Hayden acknowledged that the piece might seem funny or scary to some. But he explained that he likes skeletons because they serve as a sort of blank canvas.

“To the average viewer, (a skeleton) has no identity,” Hayden said. “It has no gender, no race, no religion. “He has no sexual orientation.”

Hayden, who is black, often works on race and masculinity. However, he resists readings of his art that are tightly linked to his identity.

“Someone who really understands what my work is about can see all these things in my work that are more autobiographical,” Hayden said. “But there are other people who might say, ‘Oh, that’s just like me.’ This is my grandmother. This is blah blah blah.’”

Hayden suggested that his inclusive approach likely comes from his background in architecture, a profession that requires him to design public buildings that are welcoming to everyone. He seemed to enjoy the idea that two people could look at one of his works of art and come to completely opposite conclusions about its meaning; This is even if he is commenting on an important issue like policing in America. He stated that he received criticism that his perspective was not always evident in his work.

“There’s a side to me that I’m probably more prone to most of the time,” Hayden said. “But I also think one of the crazy beauties of this country is that two people can look at the same thing, have completely different views, and like it for different reasons.”

Seeing all of the work he has done throughout his ten-year career at Rose in one place also caused a shift in perspective. Some of Hayden’s old pieces now embarrass him. Others look different on the walls of the museum; a sculpture, like a basketball hoop woven from green vines, titled “Fee-fi-fo-fum.” A clump of thorn bushes runs down the backboard like a walrus’ whisker.

“It looks higher on the wall than I showed it in the gallery show,” Hayden said. “So it kind of takes on the height and shape of a slouchy, bushy basketball goal.”

It reminds him of the cross on the wall. He said seeing the piece in a new context transformed it into something else.

“Hugh Hayden: Housework” On view at the Rose Museum until June 1, 2025.