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under this name, another: the presentation of of self with hannah wilke and senga nengudi
Masters Thesis for the dept of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and CriticismSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago / dec 2018
In 1974, Hannah Wilke iteratively posed for one of her most recognized works, S.O.S Starification Object Series. That same year, Senga Nengudi stretched, filled, and danced through the performative sculptures of her Répondez S'il Vous Plaît series for the first time. Despite both artists working with everyday materials that consider and interact with the body, dematerialize over time, and center their ersonal, corporal selves within their work, their work has been shown together only twice and seen no scholarship that puts them in direct conversation with one another.
Under This Name, Another: The Presentation of Self and Naming with Hannah Wilke and Senga Nengudi is a comparative project that uses use the power of juxtaposition as a tool to generate dialogue exploring the overlapping but distinct practices of Wilke and Nengudi throughout their careers. Building from scholarship on their most-recognized works, I consider and extend each artist’s signature material concerns from the tangible forms of gum and nylons, respectively, to include the conceptual and intangible nature of a name. By incorporating their chosen names into their artistic practice, Wilke and Nengudi thus position names as a material in and of themselves, to be shaped, formed, played with, removed, or applied in order to challenge concrete or conclusory readings of self.