''We Come in Peace'' is a sculptural installation created in 2018 by

Huma Bhabha Huma Bhabha (born 1962) is a Pakistanis, Pakistani-American Sculpture, sculptor based in Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie, New York. Known for her uniquely grotesque, figurative forms that often appear dissected or dismembered, Bhabha often u ...

, a New York–based Pakistani-American sculptor, originally commissioned for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. The original installation consisted of two sculptures, named ''We Come in Peace'' and ''Benaam'', which means "nameless" in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

''We Come in Peace'' is a tall standing figure, while ''Benaam'' is a long figure lying prostrate. The standing figure was acquired by the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Description

The sculptures are made of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

styrofoam Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), commonly called "Blue Board", manufactured as foam continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and water barrie ...

, and

cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, then cast in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

to allow them to withstand the elements. The title of the installation makes reference to a 1951 film, ''

The Day the Earth Stood Still ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' (a.k.a. ''Farewell to the Master'' and ''Journey to the World'') is a 1951 American science fiction film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Julian Blaustein and directed by Robert Wise. It stars Michael Re ...

''. According to ''AM New York'', Bhabha viewed the characters as cooperative, with ''We Come in Peace'' coming to aid ''Benaam'', but arriving too late because ''Benaam'' has already died – though to her mind the latter might still "rise up ... ings that you would not imagine might happen. That's the hope." While Bhabha considers the work to be "very much an anti-war statement", she also wanted it to be multi-layered and open to a wide variety of interpretations. According to ''

AM New York ''AM New York Metro'' is a free newspaper, free daily newspaper that is published in New York City by Schneps Media. According to the company, the average Friday circulation in September 2013 was 335,900. When launched on October 10, 2003, ''AM New ...

'', the ''We Come in Peace'' sculpture is

gender fluid Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

Critical reception

Scott Lynch of

Gothamist Gothamist LLC is the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, and other local coverage. It was founded in 2003 by Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung. In March 2017, Joe Ricketts, ...

, remarking on the pieces' diversity of inspiration, observed, "Both pieces allude to a wide swath of art history, from ancient

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

sculpture to contemporary works by the likes of

Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

and

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

". He said that the sculptures created an "ominous but open-ended narrative, inviting visitors to explore their own thematic interpretations: subjugation and supplication, respect, fear, and/or adoration; social upheaval and displacement; gender, power, and 'memories of place.'" Martha Schwendener of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the installation as "a spare and unsettling sculptural installation", that "ripples" with associations of "colonization, invasion, imperialism". She suggests that the work invites the observer to consider the sheer strangeness of extraterrestrial or "post-humanity" lifeforms as they would likely be experienced by humankind, but that such encounters may ultimately offer the possibility of a "melding of cultures and aesthetics that might be harmonious rather than imperialist." Describing the work as "eerie, other, unnerving, ambiguous, even alarming", Jerry Saltz for

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

saw the work as a critique of the West: its "vivisected, gouged idol covered in blotchy graffiti could be from any photograph seen daily of the mayhem in the Middle East, just part of the carnage, interventions, and wars habhahas called a 'systematic demonization and humiliation of the people and their ancient and present Islamic cultures' ... r Met installation is a vivid rebuke of what the West says to all the cultures it invades: We come in peace." He assessed the work as "among the best Met roof sculpture installations since the program began in 1987."

Description

Critical reception

References

Further reading