Breakdown

Leigh’s video work Untitled (M*A*S*H) (2018) imagines a fictive order of black nurses operating on the front of the Korean War, a conflict that began between the United States and North Korea in 1950 and never officially ceased. Like M*A*S*H—the long-running American TV show (1972–83) it parodies—the work directs attention to the overlooked life in the staging grounds. Showcasing the agonizing choices faced by those who staff the tented encampments of war, it perhaps also serves as a reminder that our neighborhoods remain a warfront too. Using only artist’s tools, Leigh asks: How do we transform ourselves and others?

Working as an artistic duo named Girl, Leigh and Ganesh reimagine the reclining female nude, a common subject in European painting and sculpture, from their perspective as queer women of color. Instead of a pale-skinned, forward-facing Venus, viewers are shown the back of a black woman lying perfectly still on a marble slab. Her entire head is covered—either smothered or shielded—by a pile of small stones; subtle breath movements are the only sign of life. By hiding facial and sexual features, the artists offer some protection for this real person being presented as an idealized object. The video's title comes from a Gwendolyn Brooks poem, in which life's honey is stored but not tasted. It is saved as the speaker heads to war, the time of his return unknown, suggesting a parallel in the defensive precautions black women use to survive life's daily hostilities. [Overview Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum]