One aspect of Leigh's work is an interest in querying excessively defensive Afro-centric ideals of feminity....by co-opting racist reduction Leigh attempts to rehabilitate the memories of real individuals through a kind of purging. Embracing symbols of bigotry can itself function as an act of defiance as it entails adopting the space of the peripheral. As feminist author bell hooks clarified however, one does not "[speak]" of a marginality one wishes to lose, to give up, or surrender as part of moving into the center, but rather as a site one stays in, clings to even, because it nourishes one's capacity to resist."

Leigh makes sculptures by massing together ceramic objects shaped like breasts, torpedoes and bananas."
The New Yorker
2005"

"Leigh’s conceptual art draws from anthropological tropes as a means of critiquing how the black female body is viewed in contemporary culture. Her brilliant “Hottentot Venus Series” explores the legacy of Sarah Baartman, a nineteenth century black woman whose body---specifically her ass---was exhibited around Europe as a circuit act. Leigh's other pieces deal with the history of Ota Benga, a Congolese man who was exhibited with monkeys in a cage at the Bronx Zoo in 1906.
If i ever get around to teaching a seminar on black feminist visual and performance art, Simone's work will definitely be on the syllabus."
Frank Leon Roberts
2006





“Simone Leigh’s ceramic sculptures portray women’s body parts run amok. Her... dynamic and interesting piece is a grouping of about two dozen breasts suspended from the ceiling, with nipples pointed down, intimating a cluster of bombs hurtling toward Earth. A boot’s treadmarks imprinted on many of their surfaces...."
Rafael Risemberg
New York Blade
2006