Untitled (Cowrie)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A glazed, terracotta stoneware sculpture by Simone Leigh. The roughly egg-shaped piece is sculpted to resemble a large cowrie shell; with the flat ventral face forming the top of the sculpture, and the rounded dorsal face forming the bottom. The sculpture is uniformly coated with a dark, bluish gray glaze. The top portion of the sculpture has a textured surface covered in small, raised, irregular dots, and the bottom has a smooth surface. At the top center is a narrow aperture that extends from the thinner anterior end of the sculpture to the broader posterior end, between opposing rows of jagged teeth. The anterior end of the shell features a circular opening and the posterior end features a thin slit. On the bottom of the sculpture are areas of small losses and patches of white and blue glaze adhered to the surface. The interior is tan with brown speckles.

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