The Gods Must Be Crazy

Combining evocative terracotta forms with industrial elements such as medical equipment and radio antennae, Simone Leigh's hybrid sculptural works evoke the Pan-African references and space-themed gestures of Afro-Futurism. Leigh investigates concepts of the black body, labor and marking, most visible in the Timberland work boot imprint. Queen Bee is a marriage of these concerns and also a response to the influences of colonialism, as its form echoes European design in its chandelier-like construction. Queen Bee’s dependence on the radio antennae, a nearly obsolete source of communication, suggests a failure in advancement and relegates Queen Bee, despite the title’s references to empire, wealth and its metallic allure of futurism, to the realms of the archaic.