This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Simone Leigh, organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and held at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, April 6-September 4, 2023, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., November 3, 2023-March 3, 2024, and jointly at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles June 2024-January 2025. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Index -- Dionne Brand. Introduction: Ars diagnostic / Eva Respini -- Plates -- Extended notes on the riot / Saidiya Hartman -- "If you never...you don't...": the aesthetic (forms) of refusal / Denise Ferreira da Silva -- Plates -- Awaiting her verb / Rizvana Bradley -- Passing the torch: Black women, intimacy, and arson in Conspiracy / Yasmina Price -- Plates -- Clay's memory / Vanessa Agard-Jones -- The ceramics of Simone Leigh / Sequoia Miller -- Women in the yard: the legacy of Afro-Jamaican ceramics / Rianna Jade Parker -- Plates -- A glossary of the tangible and unfettered / Katherine McKittrick -- Simone Leigh: Caribbean Diasporas and cleansing the "colonial stain" / Daniella Rose King -- Plates -- Simone Leigh: the alchemy of architecture / Steven Nelson -- The vernacular revered / Jessica Lynne -- Survival theory, or, the idea of Africa / Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts -- Plates -- Simone Leigh: "a journey to scale" / Christina Sharpe -- Simone Leigh and the monumental / Hortense J. Spillers -- Plates -- Chronology of social sculpture works / Anni A. Pullagura -- Simone Leigh's social sculpture / Tavia Nyong'o -- Plates -- Be Black baby! Simone Leigh's Performance Commons / Uri McMillan -- Roving notes through an embodied archive that presents something "more true than fact" / Nomaduma Masilela -- Conversation / Malik Gaines, Simone Leigh, and Lorraine O'Grady -- Plates -- Works in the exhibition -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Supporters -- The Trustees of the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston -- Reproduction credits -- Index -- Ars diagnostic / Dionne Brand.
Summary:
"The first major monograph on Simone Leigh's multimedia explorations of community, Black feminism and the traditions and material cultures of the African diaspora. Over the past two decades, Simone Leigh has created artwork that situates questions of Black femme-identified subjectivity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Her sculpture, video, installation and social practice explore ideas of race, beauty and community in visual and material culture. Leigh's art addresses a wide swath of historical periods, geographies and traditions, with specific references to materials across the African diaspora, as well as forms traditionally associated with African art and architecture. This publication includes substantial new scholarship addressing Leigh's work across mediums and topics. The volume, timed with a major exhibition and national tour of the artist's work, includes contributions by her longtime collaborators, new scholars who add diverse insights and perspectives, and a conversation highlighting Leigh's voice. Additionally, generous and lushly illustrated plates feature her critically acclaimed work for the 59th Venice Biennale and works made throughout her 20-year career. A special section featuring Leigh's research images gives access to Leigh's research methodologies and encourages readers to fully engage with all aspects of Leigh's work. This monograph provides a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the complex and profoundly moving work of this groundbreaking artist." -- Publisher's website.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.