There is no avoiding Leigh Cole. Her work transforms space and invades the public sphere aggressively, retaining a level of legibility and accessibility for any audience. Creating interventions between science and art, Leigh makes large, provocative pieces, the physicality of which resonates with the physicality of her process. She welds, she wires, she rolls metal, she makes cotton candy and experiments with perfect marshmallow recipes.

Her two text-based pieces, BOYS BOYS BOYS (2008) and I'll Show You Mine... (2009) demonstrate both her love for tinkering with materials as well as her fascination with metalworking and electricity. BOYS BOYS BOYS as installed in her 2008 show With Lust humorously calls attention to issues of gender inherent in much of her practice, playfully using color, bright light and shiny surfaces to attract the eye. In the installation, curlicues of hot pink razor blades dance around 15 ft of fluffy white emission punctuated with sparkly red discs. This attractiveness is cleverly deceptive, and it does not take the viewer long to cognize Leigh's critique of sexual politics.

I'll Show You Mine... takes this critique into public space in its original installation outside the Visual Arts Facility on UCSD's campus. Students, faculty and staff could not help but be confronted by the large SEX sign. It draws people forward with its strong visual statement, situated somewhere between red-light district advertising and glamorous Hollywood marquees. In both pieces Leigh couples whimsy with biting wit to force the viewer to question their relationship to sexuality and the social mores surrounding it.

Leigh's current project, Never Before Seen, is an immersive environment derived from her recent research into the systems of outer space, particularly black holes. It will be installed at UCSD as part of Leigh's MFA thesis in May of 2010.

-Laura K Hoeger