REVIEW ART IN AMERICA MARCH, 2004 P.123 STEPHANIE CASH SENGA NENGUDI…

REVIEW
ART IN AMERICA
MARCH, 2004
P.123
STEPHANIE CASH

SENGA NENGUDI AT THOMAS ERBEN

Active since the 1970' Senga Nengudi is one of those artists who seems to quietly slip
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through art history' cracks. Her works include performances, installations and
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sculptures that are often performance-based. Now living in Colorado, where she teaches,
she remains relatively unknown despite her influence on a number of artists and her
association with such well-known colleagues as David Hammons. A recent show of her
sculptures from the 1970' demonstrated the continued relevance of her output. Because
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of Nengudi' avowed disinterest in creating lasting objects or preserving her works, the
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sculptures on view in this show were all re-creations of earlier versions shown at Just
Above Midtown gallery, a respected New York City venue for African-American art in
the `70s run by Linda Goode-Bryant.

Consisting of stretched, tightly twisted and knotted configurations of pantyhose,
sometimes filled with small amounts of sand to create pendulous sacs, the works often
have an improvisational feel, perhaps partly inspired by Nengudi' background in dance
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and her use of found materials, such as rubber inner tubes. Though these are abstract
constructions, Nengudi relates the material and forms to the human body.
She fashioned the works from used pantyhose, usually in a range of tan and black flesh
tones but sometimes using colorful varieties. The artist prefers to work with worn
pantyhose because, she says, it has a "residue" of the body and the "energy" of the
wearer. Her experience of childbirth made her consider the pushing and pulling on the
human body, and its resilience. The effects of aging are evoked in the stretched forms
that often resemble withered testicles or sagging breasts.

The exhibition' centerpiece was a dynamic installation of 10 pairs of hose stretched
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across a corner of the gallery in a repeated V formation, the "trunks" of the hose filled
with sand to anchor them to the floor. R.S.V.P. (1975-77) reached from floor to ceiling
and suggested an attenuated figure with knotted combinations of light and dark brown
forming "arms" and "legs" ending in "feet" of sand. Most of the other works were wall-
bound. Tacked up in a Y shape, R.S.V.P. V (1976) resembles a flayed specimen.
Inside/Outside (1977) is an elegant example that has the gravity of a ceremonial garment.
It features half of a rubber inner tube attached to the wall with large nails; pendulous
appendages in pink, blue, yellow and dark brown dangle from the tube' ends.s

Though Nengudi created these works at the height of the feminist movement, her use of
pantyhose doesn' seem intended as a commentary on the oppression of the female sex.
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Instead, she made materially engaging works that transcend political commentary and
passing art-world trends.