SIMONE YVETTE LEIGH SPEAKS SOFTLY, BUT HER GRAVITAS IS AS WEIGHTY AS THE BRONZE SHE COMMANDS
U.S. tour opens one year after artist’s triumphant turn in Venice
By P. Andrews-Keenan
As the news outlets began to gather for a tour of Simone Leigh, the artist’s eponymous show at the ICA | Boston, I find myself standing next to Leigh. She quietly turns and in a soft and mellifluous voice introduces herself, “Hi I’m Simone. Then she steps out and begins the tour, the first U.S. stop after her triumphant show Sovereignty, during the 59th Venice Biennale just one year ago.
Those who know her well, like ICA Board member Charla Jones whisper “she is shy”. In a world overrun by ‘influencers’ who make nothing, here is a woman who takes clay, turns it into bronze and creates magic. Magic filled with gravitas and meaning. Such is the dichotomy of Simone Yvette Leigh. Despite her shyness of demeanor, her heart is that of a lion. After all, didn’t she turn clay into Sphinxes for the U.S. Pavilion in Venice, and then take home the coveted Golden Lion, the world’s most prestigious art award. This woman is even prescient in her choice of animal. Those here who attended Loophole of Retreat, a convening curated by Rashida Bumbraylast October in Venice, deemed it ‘life changing. While others are talking, Simone Leigh is getting it in!!
This exhibition features work from Venice, pieces from private collections, and new works all steeped in Leigh’s meticulously researched pedagogy decrying colonization, specifically as it relates to Black feminist thought. Also here are pieces Pigment International first saw as part of the Whitney Biennale in 2019.
The oldest work in the exhibition is 2004’s, ‘White Teeth (For Ota Benga)’ a porcelain, steel and wire work she crafted at her kitchen table. Ota Benga was a pygmy from the Congo whose teeth were sharpened, after which he was exhibited at expositions and then the Bronx Zoo. This led, Leigh said, to her distaste for expositions and world fairs, and was when she knew she was an artist. The three dimensional piece of hundreds of sharpened porcelain teeth is a visual representation of the trauma lodged in our DNA, and it gives you goose bumps.
Leigh’s monumental bronze sculpture ‘Satellite’ graces the front of the ICA just as it did at the U.S. Pavilion in Venice. She spoke often of how her work changed as she had resources to create these larger than life pieces. The bronze, ‘Sharifa’, stands over nine feet tall and has presence of place here just as it did in Venice.
Produced this year, the bronze ‘Dunham’, is the juxtaposition of the female body with domestic vessels and architectural elements. The goal, she says, is to call attention “to acts of labor and care, particularly among and for Black women.” Leigh visually representing self-care in bronze, mind blowing.
Continuing in that vein, “Last Garment” shows a washer women in a reflecting pool which was also strikingly presented in Venice. Here, with a much larger space, and the Boston Harbor as a backdrop the piece is nothing less than breathtaking.
As the group rounds the corner to end the tour, Leigh turns to head out ahead of the group. And just as quietly as she entered she’s now made her exit. Speak softly Simone and continue to mold larger than life clay!
Simone Leigh is in the Bridgitt and Bruce Evans and Karen and Brian Conway Galleries at the ICA through Sep 4, 2023 and will tour to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (November 2023–March 2024) and a joint presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles (June 2024–January 2025). #SimoneLeigh
Read this week’s Pigment Newsletter here.
