Senga Nengudi, Performance Piece – Nylon Mesh and Maren Hassinger, 1977
Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece – Nylon Mesh and Maren Hassinger

Born in Chicago, Senga Nengudi (*1943, USA) grew up in California, where she studied art and dance. In 1971, she moved to Harlem and became involved with Just Above Midtown, the first Afro-American gallery in New York City, exhibiting with Houston Conwill, David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady. From the mid-1970s onwards, she became known for performance based sculptures made from nylon mesh – tights, a woman’s underwear. At the same time she met Maren Hassinger with whom she started to frequently collaborate. “Hardly supported by our white contemporaries, including the women’s movement, we set out on our own” (Nengudi). In addition to her sculptural performance practice, she has invented a variety of personae such as the photographer Propecia Leigh, painter Harriet Chin, and the writer Lily Bea Moor to explore, ‘what’s in a name’, to subvert stereotypical expectations raised by an ‘ethnic’ artist name and generally to reflect the great significance of naming in black culture. Nengudi was included in "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power" at the Tate (2017); her retrospective "Topologies" travelled from Lenbachbachhaus, Munich, to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum and Museu de Arte de São Paulo 2019-2021.

Between 1975 and 1977, Senga Nengudi became known for her nylon mesh – tights – sculptures. In the mid-1970s, she also met artist Maren Hassinger with whom she shared a sensibility for soft materials (influenced by Eva Hesse) and an interest in fusing sculptural ideas and dance. “I am working with nylon mesh because it relates to the elasticity of the human body. From tender, tight beginnings to sagging end ... After giving birth to my own son, I thought of black wet-nurses suckling child after child - their own as well as those of others, until their breasts rested on their knees, their energies drained. My works are abstracted reflections of used bodies - visual images that serve my aesthetic decisions as well as my ideas.” (Senga Nengudi) These photographs show Nengudi’s first performance in 1977, at Woods Gallery: Maren Hassinger performing Nengudi’s objects. JE, BK


Courtesy Senga Nengudi

Document media
photographs

Issue date
1977

Relations
O’G 1/P

Tags
dance/choreography, extended body

A
Ebtisam Abdulaziz
Marina Abramović
Helena Almeida
Eleanor Antin
Arahmaiani
Malin Arnell
Oreet Ashery
Augusta Atla
Margarita Azurdia
B
Antonia Baehr
Maja Bajević
Anne Bean
Anat Ben-David
Renate Bertlmann
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz
Nisrine Boukhari
Marijs Boulogne
Tania Bruguera
Nancy Buchanan
Maris Bustamante
C
Cabello / Carceller
Shirley Cameron/ Monica Ross/ Evelyn Silver
Graciela Carnevale
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Ève Gabriel Chabanon
Helen Chadwick
Chicks on Speed
Lygia Clark
Paul Clarke
Mary Coble
Colette
Cooltūristės
Corpus Deleicti
Nieves Correa
Laura Cottingham
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen
D
Katrina Daschner
Vlasta Delimar
Carola Dertnig
Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Disband
Ines Doujak
Orshi Drozdik
Yingmei Duan
Kirsten Dufour
Fabienne Dumont
E
Silvia Eiblmayr
Diamela Eltit
Rose English
VALIE EXPORT
F
F.F.F.F.
Factory of Found Clothes
Esther Ferrer
Les filles Föllen
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Angelika Fojtuch
Simone Forti
Coco Fusco
G
(e.) Twin Gabriel
Regina José Galindo
Anna Bella Geiger
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin
Patrycja German
Ghazel
Kate Gilmore
Trine Mee Sook Gleerup
H
Mona Hatoum
Lynn Hershman
High Heel Sisters
María Teresa Hincapié
Nan Hoover
I
Icelandic Love Corporation - Gjörningaklúbburinn
Sanja Iveković
J
Elżbieta Jabłońska
Françoise Janicot
Joan Jonas
Anne Jud
Birgit Jürgenssen
Kirsten Justesen
K
Kanonklubben
Line Skywalker Karlström
Tina Keane
Klonaris / Thomadaki
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Jakob Lena Knebl
Verica Kovacevska
Elena Kovylina
Katarzyna Kozyra
Christina Kubisch
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Verena Kyselka
L
Nicola L
Latifa Laâbissi
Leslie Labowitz
Leslie Labowitz & Suzanne Lacy
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Sigalit Landau
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Kalup Linzy
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Léa Lublin
M
Jumana Manna
Manon
MaraM
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Charlotte Moorman
Teresa Murak
Sands Murray-Wassink
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N
Narcissister
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Senga Nengudi
Les Nyakes
O
Lorraine O'Grady
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ORLAN
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Schwarze Schokolade
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Bonnie Ora Sherk
Barbara T. Smith
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Spiderwoman Theater
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Melati Suryodarmo
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Jinoos Taghizadeh
Milica Tomić
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Teresa Tyszkiewicz
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Mierle Laderman Ukeles
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Valie Export Society
Cecilia Vicuña
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The Waitresses
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Hannah Wilke
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Julita Wójcik
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Nil Yalter
Yeni & Nan