In “Crown Ether,” a community on columns rises towards the sky, exploring the “relationship of the terrestrial to the sublime,” explains Brooklyn-based artist Olalekan Jeyifous, who spent part of his childhood in Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Nigeria. Like much of Jeyifous’ work, the title belies an interest in both the symbolic and the scientific, referring to the cyclic compound molecules that cluster in the form of a ring. These sculptures, too, crowning trunk-like pillars, gather towards each other in a circle, “like a coming together of people around the music and the arts,” says the Cornell-trained architect. Even though Jeyifous no longer works on permanent residences, the possibility of prospective inhabitants is not far from mind. His artworks – accompanied by detailed renderings and narratives of who might live there – are part of a longstanding interest in experimental public architecture.
