Senga Nengudi’s sculptures here are “activated,” by Joseph “jo” Blake and Haruko Crow Nishimura. Henry Art Gallery
I always wondered about Senga Nengudi. She’s a legend for her 1970s sculptures made of pantyhose, but art history had her filed as a one-hit wonder.
True: What a hit. There’s a fever and music to her sculptures made of pantyhose stretched and pulled between the wall and the floor. As majestic and abstract as they are, they also make an ache rise in my lower back, my legs, my crotch. When I confront them, I hear my mother’s worried and worrisome words to me as a feisty teenager: Cross your legs. I see the flashing slogan: “Control Top.” My body has not been the same size throughout my life, and that has mattered very much. I do not conquer these things, never will. These things hit deep.
