SENGA NENGUDI

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.

—Senga Nengudi

Rapunzel (1981) exemplifies Senga Nengudi’s performance practice, highlighting her use of found materials and improvisational movement. Nengudi staged a performative action from the window of an abandoned Gothic Revival school building in Los Angeles that was being demolished. Adorning herself with a headdress made from her signature nylon material, she leaned out a window, her sculptural creation operated as an extension for her body and surrogate for it. Photographed by Barbara McCollough, Rapunzel exemplifies the symbolically resonant hybridity of Nengudi’s work, and is identified by Elissa Auther as a key demonstration of the artist’s “staging an action or performance at an imaginatively rich site.”

SENGA NENGUDI
Rapunzel
1981
Gelatin silver print
40 x 32 inches (101.6 x 81.3 cm)
© Senga Nengudi