Senga Nengudi at Thomas Erben - New York

Active since the 1970 Senga Nengudi is single of those artists who appears to quietly slip through art history's cracks. Her works include performances, installations and statuarys that are often performance-based. Now living in Colorado, where she teaches, she remains relatively unknown despite her influence upon a number of artists and her association with like well-known colleagues as David Hammons. A new show of her sculptures from the 1970 demonstrated the continued relevance of her output Because of Nengudi's avowed disinterest in creating lasting percepts or preserving her works, the statuarys on view in this exhibit were all re-creations of earlier versions shown at Just Above Midtown gallery, a prizeed New York City venue for African-American art in the '70 race 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 oftentimes have an improvisational feel, perhaps partly inspired through Nengudi's background in dance and her use of ground materials, such as rubber inner tubes. admitting these are abstract constructions, Nengudi relates the material and forms to the human material part She fashioned the works from used pantyhose, usually in a range of tan and black muscle and fat tones but sometimes using colorful varieties. The artist presents to work with worn pantyhose because, she says, it has a "residue" of the material substance and the "energy" of the wearer. Her experience of childbirth made her consider the pushing and pulling upon the human body, and its resilience. The events of aging are evoked in the stretched forms that many times resemble withered testicles or sagging breasts.

The exhibition's centerpiece was a dynamic installation of 10 pairs of stockings stretched across a corner of the gallery in a repeating V formation, the "trunks" of the stockings filled with sand to anchor them to the floor. RSVP (1975-77) reached from floor to ceiling and moveed an attenuated figure with knotted combinations of light and dark brown forming "arms" and "legs" ending in "feet" of sand. greatest in quantity of the other works were wall-bound. Tacked up in a Y shape, RSVP V (1976) bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance tos 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, amethystine yellow and dark brown dangle from the tube's ends

notwithstanding that Nengudi created these works at the height of the feminist motion her use of pantyhose doesn't have the appearance intended as a commentary upon the oppression of the female sex Instead, she made materially engaging works that transcend political commentary and passing art-world trends

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