We Come in Peace, 2018

Huma Bhabha’s We Come in Peace, created in 2018, presents striking sculptural creatures that seem to emerge either from the prehistoric past or a postapocalyptic future. Bhabha, who often cites pulp horror and science-fiction cinema as important influences, took the work’s title from Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), in which an alien steps from a spaceship onto the White House lawn and says, “We have come to visit you in peace,” before soldiers and civilians open fire. Bhabha places her practice within a long sculptural tradition, with Rodin’s Walking Man serving as a touchstone in its shared exploration of implied movement, while also engaging the present-day weaponization of the idea of “the Other” to justify oppression and violence. With its many-faced form, We Come in Peace raises questions about the familiar and unfamiliar, the alien and the native, and the shared search for belonging.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States