Nefertiti (Black Power)

Since its excavation in 1912 by a team of German archeologists in the workshop of the ancient Egyptian sculptor Thutmose, the bust of Nefertiti, a work of limestone and stucco made around 1345 B.C. has been an international icon, touted as a symbol of beauty and power, and depicted by myriad artists. Nefertiti (Black Power) is a neon artwork by Awol Erizku (b. 1988, Gondar, Ethiopia), a conceptual artist living and working in Los Angeles, conceived for 慢慢燃燒 Slow Burn, the artist’s 2018 solo exhibition in Hong Kong. The site responsive exhibition consisted exclusively of works in neon, evoking the brilliant metropolis’ neon-lit streets, and incorporated Chinese characters, like those that translate to “Black Power” in the present work. Erizku specifically calls out the Afrocentric reclaiming of Nefertiti as a Black queen, and therefore an emblem of Black Power. The bust of Nefertiti is a recurrent motif in the expansive iconography Erizku has employed since the beginning of his artistic career addressing race, identity, and contested cultural histories, and which draws on references ranging from culture coded as urban to advertising and the art historical canon. Erizku’s work links the ancient and the contemporary, asserting a historically marginalized Afrocentric perspective. Its play with cross-cultural and polyvalent language and symbols speaks to the global nature of contemporary art.