Simone Leigh: Brick House

Brick House, the inaugural installation on the High Line Plinth, is a 16-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman who is positioned to look down Tenth Avenue. Brick House is part of Leigh's Anatomy of Architecture series, which melds the human body with architectural forms from regions including West Africa and the American South. This particular piece references numerous architectural forms: Batammaliba structures from Benin and Togo; the teleuk (domelike dwellings) of the Mousgoum people of Cameroon and Chad; and the restaurant Mammy’s Cupboard in the southern US.