Nefertiti (Black Power)

Erizku invokes Nefertiti as a powerful symbol of African American pride and empowerment. In this neon work, he weaves together African, East Asian and North American cultural references, bringing together an African queen with Chinese characters reading ‘Black Power’, to address issues of race, identity and politics. However, in combining such symbols, Erizku perhaps expresses uncertainty over their future power as they become increasingly globalised.

Artist Awol Erizku depicts the 18th Dynasty Egyptian Queen, Nefertiti, in glowing neon. He adopts the image of the African Queen as a symbol of Black Power – which the Chinese characters in this work translate to. The neon suggests popular culture and advertising, in particular the Hong Kong skyline. Nefertiti (Black Power) was first made for Erizku’s solo show 慢慢燃燒 Slow Burn at Ben Brown, Hong Kong in 2018.

Through engaging with global cultural references, Erizku says his work is an ‘act of cultural reclamation by way of artefacts and repurposing them […] interrogating all these subjects that have been conditioned through colonial and postcolonial lenses and now through globalisation.’ [1]

Nefertiti appears in a number of works by Erizku, such as his disco ball-esque sculpture, Nefertiti – Miles Davis (2017) and in his photograph Malcolm X Freestyle (Pharaoh’s Dance) (2019–20). Erizku is one of a number of contemporary artists who have referenced Nefertiti’s image to engage with questions of race and colonial entitlement. [2] Very little is known about Nefertiti, and her racial identity is often brought into question. Her image in the popular imagination is shaped by a bust by Thutmose that was discovered in the early twentieth century. The sculpture is currently housed in the Neues Museum, Berlin, though Egypt contest Germany’s claim to it.

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