ART CITIES:Berlin-Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi is one of the seminal conceptual and performance artists of our time, she emerged as part of a group of avant-garde African-American artists active in Los Angeles and New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Informed by a shifted sociopolitical consciousness, Nengudi’s earliest work synthesized feminism, African and Japanese dance, music, and religious rituals in experimental sculptures and performances. These themes continue to inform Nengudi’s interdisciplinary practice to this day.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Sprüth Magers Gallery Archive
Senga Nengudi’s exhibition at Sprüth Magers Gallery in Berlin Berlin features four recent sculptures from her celebrated series “R.S.V.P.”, Nengudi views her work as an act of sharing between artist and audience. “I don’t believe in spoon-feeding the meaning of a piece,” she says. “That’s why I called my work “R.S.V.P.” (Repondez S’il Vous pLlait). I want people to have a personal dialogue with what resonates with them”. The artist debuted the series in 1977 at Just Above Midtown (JAM), a pioneering art space in Manhattan representing work by African American and other artists of color. It consists of previously worn, dark-hued pantyhose partially knotted into pendulous, sand-filled sacks, then stretched and tethered to the wall in various changing arrangements. Though they stand alone as sculptural installations, these arrangements also serve as sites for performances by Nengudi and others. Entangled within their taught lines and bulging forms, the performers bend, reach, and pose, tugging on the pantyhose and stretching them further, or pushing around their ample sand pockets. Such actions reflect Nengudi’s grounding in dance, which is integral to her work. “The movement of the body through space has been an important component of my art practice,” she has said. R.S.V.P. grew out of Nengudi’s reflections upon the changes her body underwent during her first pregnancy, and, more generally, upon the shared experience of womanhood. With their flesh-tone coloring, and in their bulbous, sand-filled forms, the pantyhose evoke what the artist describes as the elasticity of the body. “I am working with nylon mesh because it relates to the elasticity of the human body. From tender, tight beginnings to sagging…the body can only stand so much push and pull until it gives way, never to resume its original shape”. The work “R.S.V.P. Reverie [Scribe]” (2014) includes five strands of stockings that reach down to the floor, weighted by sand to create what looks like slender legs and feet. In “R.S.V.P. Reverie [Bow Leg]” (2014), a twisting metal armature takes on a skeletal quality, giving the loose nylons the appearance of papery skin. The stockings in “Blossom” (2014) and “R.S.V.P. Reverie [Scribe]” (2014) extend vertically, horizontally and diagonally across the gallery walls, with a strength that belies the simple, ethereal quality of her materials.
Info: Sprüth Magers Gallery, Oranienburger Straße 18, Berlin, Duration: 27/4-8/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com
