I am inspired by SIMONE LEIGHβ¨π€ . Repost from @artgirlrising γ»γ»γ» Born in Chicago in 1967, Simone Leigh developed an interest in engaging with the often erroneous categorization, display, and historicization of objects associated with the African diaspora.β β β β Leigh works primarily with sculpture, installation, and video, as well as with Social Practice, to foreground black female experience. Often combining premodern techniques and materialsβincluding lost-wax casting, salt-fired ceramics, and terracottaβwith potent cultural iconographies such as cowrie shells, plantains, and tobacco leaves, Leigh creates objects and environments that reframe stereotypes associated with black women and celebrate black life. Her series Anatomy of Architecture (2016β ) occupies the liminal space between figuration and abstraction, merging forms drawn from the human body, the built environment, and the domestic realm. Employing a research-based approach grounded in materiality, Leigh renders figures and architectonic forms in bronze, ceramic, and raffia that are imbued with references and sensibilities sourced from Pan-African vernacular culture, ranging from early Egyptian terracotta vessels and the rammed-earth dwellings of the Cameroonian Mousgoum to Nigerian ibeji figures and nineteenth-century African American face jugs.β β β β Engaging with histories of black emancipation, Leigh often invokes specific episodes drawn from the legacies of black revolutionary organizations, including the 1970s Philadelphia-based MOVE and the Black Panther Party, as well as the United Order of Tents, a secret society of black women nurses founded during the era of the Underground Railroad. In 2014, she produced the Free Peopleβs Medical Clinic, a temporary space for collective healing and wellness services administered by and directed toward black women. Named after an initiative founded by the Black Panther Party and housed in a brownstone owned by the first African American obstetrics-and-gynaecology practitioner, the project examined themes of resilience, collectivity, and self-reliance.β β β β Via @guggenheimβ β Artist: @simoneyvetteleigh β β β β #togetherwerise #risewithus #artgirlrising https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMilekBjhs/?igshid=cj8zj4lvyotj