Unearthing Meaning: The Hidden Depths of Leslie Hewitt’s Photography

In ‘New Waves’ at Perrotin, four oversized, elegantly simplistic photographs by Leslie Hewitt are positioned on the floor leaning against the wall – an unconventional exhibition method that the artist often utilizes. By embracing the spatial dimension of the room, these pieces transcend the unnoticed boundary between image and observer; their tangible weight and solidity establish them as distinct sculptural forms. Referencing the notion of mise-en-abyme, or the depiction of an image within another image, the photographs show precise arrangements of objects placed on a floor and leaning against a wall. In each piece, the thin edge of a plywood square rests atop one or two stacks of books, gently pressing down the volumes with its mass. Imitating the way photographs are displayed in the gallery, the flat surface of this tilted board faces the onlooker as it leans against the wall behind, creating a sense of harmony between actual and pictorial space while destabilizing the boundary between image and object.

The sculptural formations in Hewitt’s photographs can be interpreted as both still lifes and minimalist forms. In Untitled (The Notion of Labor) (2019), the image is largely geometric: the plywood square rests at an angle on two rectangular stacks of books, their spines hidden, rendering their contents anonymous and their shapes strictly formal. Almost lacking in contextual details, this sparse, lyrical image might represent a photographic tribute to Josef Albers, with its perspective lines converging into simple abstract geometries. As a vignette of objects in space, it also hints at vanitas paintings from the Dutch baroque, where each element carries symbolic significance. The only spines that Hewitt reveals show up in Untitled (The Sun Rose and the World Became Radiant) (2019). The unveiled titles – Ark of Bones (1974), a collection of short stories by Henry Dumas, and Black Orpheus (1948) by Jean-Paul Sartre, reflecting on the anti-colonial Négritude movement – emphasize Black narratives and voices: a gesture of illumination underscored by the title of the work. With photographic abstractions that often act as metaphorical monuments to Black literary legacies (this piece evolved from the artist’s 2019 exhibition that envisioned Harlem’s National Memorial African Bookstore), Hewitt positions post-minimalism as a means for historical remembrance.

While these photographs physically extend into the gallery space, a three-dimensional still life across the room sculpturally retreats from it. In this instance, a rectangular niche carved from the wall creates a sunken frame adorned with porcelain-hued Moroccan tiles. Perfectly centered within this setting is a rounded conch shell framed by a triangular tambourine and encircled by a cymbal: all cast bronze objects the shade of bone. A taut copper wire stretches horizontally across the top of this concave area, implying the conduction of sound or energy. Appropriately, part of the 2024 work’s 111-word title suggests the sculpture as a musical score: This Score May Be Realized in Any Imaginative Way, or in Conjunction with or in Response to the Recording of the Song Rock Steady 00:03:15 on the album Young Gifted and Black, Atlantic Records (1972). As Hewitt, along with collaborator Jamal Cyrus, places another Black cultural landmark at the forefront, she evokes a sense of synesthesia, merging the rhythm and flow of sound with the tactile attributes of sculpture in a speculative musical composition.

At the heart of the gallery, Untitled (Imperceptible, Slow Drag, Barely Moving) (2022) – a loose arrangement of chartreuse glass bowls, curved wooden wedges, and steel beams – serves as a visual parenthesis: a sculptural punctuation mark that encapsulates the entire exhibition as a multifaceted negotiation of language. Here, as Hewitt proposes viewing as a form of reading, interpreting her artwork resembles engaging in literary critique: her visual narrative eludes didacticism and revels in the poetics of hidden symbolism.

Leslie Hewitt, ‘New Waves’ is on display at Perrotin, Los Angeles, until 25 January

^{Main image: Leslie Hewitt, ‘New Waves’, 2024–5, exhibition view. Courtesy: the artist and Perrotin; photograph: Paul Salveson}