Inside/Outside
Senga Nengudi
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Inside/Out is one of the most iconic works by pioneering conceptual and performance artist Senga Nengudi. The sculpture is part of a series that was shown in 1977 under the title R.S.V.P., first in Los Angeles and then at the groundbreaking gallery Just Above Midtown in New York. This title, an abbreviation used to ask recipients to respond to an invitation, was Nengudi’s way of encouraging audiences to actively engage with the works. All were made of similar materials—here, sand-filled pantyhouse and a rubber inner tube. The artist herself activated objects from the series through well-documented performances, in which dance brings a sense of human physicality to the pendulous, undulating forms.
“I was fascinated by how resilient the body was and I really wanted to somehow duplicate that experience,” explains Nengudi. “I also was dealing with the idea of the female psyche—that your psyche can stretch, stretch, stretch and come back into shape.”
From archival letters, we know the artist asked friends to send her old and used pantyhose, which she used to construct sculptures. In this way, Nengudi merged her thought-provoking performances with a humorous nod to women’s bodily realities.
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Gallery Label
“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 as well as my ideas.”
—Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi’s affinity for nylon and rubber stems from their elasticity and resemblance to the “tender, tight beginnings to sagging end” of the human body. In this sculpture, the deflated tubing and thin, drooping fabric, heavy with sand, evoke distended fleshy parts, as well as the impact of labor on Black women’s bodies. As with many of her works, Nengudi activated Inside/Outside through live performance, blurring the formal boundaries of sculpture as static and autonomous objects. Referencing ritual objects and costumes resonant across the African diaspora, the artist would don the curving plastic, transforming the sculpture into a colorful headdress during her performances.
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Inside/Out is one of the most iconic works by pioneering conceptual and performance artist Senga Nengudi. The sculpture is part of a series that was shown in 1977 under the title R.S.V.P., first in Los Angeles and then at the groundbreaking gallery Just Above Midtown in New York. This title, an abbreviation used to ask recipients to respond to an invitation, was Nengudi’s way of encouraging audiences to actively engage with the works. All were made of similar materials—here, sand-filled pantyhouse and a rubber inner tube. The artist herself activated objects from the series through well-documented performances, in which dance brings a sense of human physicality to the pendulous, undulating forms.
“I was fascinated by how resilient the body was and I really wanted to somehow duplicate that experience,” explains Nengudi. “I also was dealing with the idea of the female psyche—that your psyche can stretch, stretch, stretch and come back into shape.”
From archival letters, we know the artist asked friends to send her old and used pantyhose, which she used to construct sculptures. In this way, Nengudi merged her thought-provoking performances with a humorous nod to women’s bodily realities.
***
Gallery Label
“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 as well as my ideas.”
—Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi’s affinity for nylon and rubber stems from their elasticity and resemblance to the “tender, tight beginnings to sagging end” of the human body. In this sculpture, the deflated tubing and thin, drooping fabric, heavy with sand, evoke distended fleshy parts, as well as the impact of labor on Black women’s bodies. As with many of her works, Nengudi activated Inside/Outside through live performance, blurring the formal boundaries of sculpture as static and autonomous objects. Referencing ritual objects and costumes resonant across the African diaspora, the artist would don the curving plastic, transforming the sculpture into a colorful headdress during her performances.
MEDIUM
Nylon, mesh, rubber
DATES
1977
DIMENSIONS
approx.: 60 x 24 in. (152.4 x 61 cm)
storage (using the fitted tray prepared by Paul Speh for loan): 8 × 55 × 24 in. (20.3 × 139.7 × 61 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2011.21
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Burt Aaron, the Council for Feminist Art, and the Alfred T. White Fund
PROVENANCE
By September 2003, acquired by Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY; April 28, 2011, purchased from Thomas Erben Gallery by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension
CAPTION
Senga Nengudi (American, born 1943). Inside/Outside, 1977. Nylon, mesh, rubber
, approx.: 60 x 24 in. (152.4 x 61 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Burt Aaron, the Council for Feminist Art, and the Alfred T. White Fund, 2011.21. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2011.21_PS4.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2011.21_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Senga Nengudi
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