A visitor to Simone Leigh's installation at the Venice Biennale reflects on what the work means: 'It actually makes me think about womanhood and my linkage to the past, my history, my cultural history, history with my family.'
A visitor to the Venice Biennale photographs Simone Leigh's sculpture entitled"Jug." Leigh has been awarded a Golden Lion at the 59th International Art Exhibition.
The Biennale grounds are dotted with buildings called pavilions, constructed by various nations. Israel sits next to the United States, and Hungary is a stone's throw away. Most of the buildings looked the same as in past years. But on opening day, Simone Leigh rendered the U.S. Pavilion unrecognizable. She is the first Black woman to be awarded the Biennale commission, and she made over the pavilion to reflect just that.
The State Department selected Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art to curate Leigh’s work for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year. Standing in front of “Satellite,” Leigh’s towering sculpture at the entrance of the U.S. Pavilion, ICA director Jill Medvedow was elated. “People are gobsmacked when they turn the corner, walk down the corridor that faces the U.S. Pavilion and see the utter transformation,” she said.
Asked about what it means to represent the United States, Leigh explained, “One idea intellectually — that's really important to me — is that we need to get rid of the idea of nationalism if we're going to go forward.” This thinking aligns with the way the artist approaches her art, which she has called a “creolization,” the blending of cultures to create something new, or in this case, the blending of material cultures and African diasporic history to conceptualize her art.
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