Superiority Complex - Shelby Head by Shelby Head

Poet Phetote Mshaire titled the installation Superiority Complex, which is defined as an exaggerated opinion of oneself. – noun - the quality or state of being superior: also a superior characteristic – Complex – noun: a whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts; a group of cultural traits relating to a single activity, process, or cultural unit; a group of repressed desires and memories that exerts a dominating influence upon the personality; an exaggerated reaction to or preoccupation with a subject or situation.

+ 6 images

Superiority Complex - Shelby Head, 2022

Superiority Complex, family documents, family portrait, subfloor, hardwood, candle chandelier, table, chair, tea cup with spoon, rug, 2022

120 x 120 x 120 in

A domestic interior is partially dismantled: sections of a polished wooden floor are lifted and staggered, exposing a grid of shallow compartments beneath. Within these cavities lie carefully arranged family archives—black-and-white photographs, handwritten letters, bound diaries, legal papers, and official records—visible yet recessed, as if both unearthed and withheld. At the far edge of the room, a single upholstered chair sits on a lace doily beside a small table set with a teacup, evoking a scene of quiet inheritance and ritual.

The work stages an excavation of lineage within the architecture of the home. Beneath the floorboards are my family documents—diaries, photographs, and official records—revealing male ancestors as militiamen and “Indian fighters,” politicians, and large plantation owners. Several wills document the transfer of enslaved people as property. By physically opening the floor, the installation collapses temporal distance, bringing buried histories into the present while implicating the viewer in an act of looking down into what has been structurally concealed. The piece positions the domestic space as both archive and witness, where comfort rests uneasily atop legacies of violence, ownership, and erasure.

Email Facebook X LinkedIn Pinterest

From Shelby Head

The Fourth Thursday of November - Shelby Head, 2023

Formal table setting, sculpted food, paper mache, sculpey, silicone

76 x 150 x 96 in
Structural Damage - Shelby Head, 2023

Structural Damage, installation, 10 frames, wallpaper, steel piping, text of U.S. Federal Indian Laws, 150”x 76”x 20”, 2023

76 x 150 x 20 in
Papered Over - Shelby Head, 2023

Business suit, mannequin, paper, wood, flag, 2023

90 x 75 x 60 in
Big Beautiful Billionaire Bromance Breakup: Musk, 2025

Construct

10.5 x 9 x 2 in
Big Beautiful Billionaire Bromance Breakup: Trump, 2025

Construct

10.5 x 9 x 2 in
Executive Order 14161: Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats, 2025

Construct

4.5 x 4.5 x 1 in
Second-term Pardons, 2025

Construct

11 x 11 x 2.5 in
Signal Gate, 2025

Construct

8 x 6 x 4 in