SIMONE LEIGH (1967 - )
Untitled.
Glazed terra cotta stoneware, circa 2011-12. 216x457x178 mm; 8½x18x7 inches.Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, Philadelphia.Simone Leigh's cowrie shell is an excellent example of one of her signature sculptural forms. Each is unique - this work is covered in raised black dots of glaze with a beautiful bluish gray glaze. The tactile surface is only disrupted by the jagged opening to the interior of this evocative form.Simone Leigh began making these cowrie shells in 2011. They have been both exhibited as individual works and part of larger sculptures and installations. The forms were first publicly exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem during Simone Leigh's 2010-11 residency, then again in her 2012 solo exhibition You Don’t Know Where Her Mouth Has Been at the Kitchen, New York. The exhibition featured the same-titled installation of 65 cowrie shells hanging by wire as a chandelier.