Senga Nengudi, Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978. Courtesy Senga Nengudi.
Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets

Born in Chicago, Senga Nengudi (*1943, USA) grew up in California, where she studied art and dance. In 1971, she moved to Harlem and became involved with Just Above Midtown, the first Afro-American gallery in New York City, exhibiting with Houston Conwill, David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady. From the mid-1970s onwards, she became known for performance based sculptures made from nylon mesh – tights, a woman’s underwear. At the same time she met Maren Hassinger with whom she started to frequently collaborate. “Hardly supported by our white contemporaries, including the women’s movement, we set out on our own” (Nengudi). In addition to her sculptural performance practice, she has invented a variety of personae such as the photographer Propecia Leigh, painter Harriet Chin, and the writer Lily Bea Moor to explore, ‘what’s in a name’, to subvert stereotypical expectations raised by an ‘ethnic’ artist name and generally to reflect the great significance of naming in black culture. Nengudi was included in "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power" at the Tate (2017); her retrospective "Topologies" travelled from Lenbachbachhaus, Munich, to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum and Museu de Arte de São Paulo 2019-2021.

These photographs are the only documents of an event that Senga Nengudi instigated and conceived in March 1978: Ceremony for Freeway Fets, an improvised collaborative performance held at a Los Angeles freeway underpass to mark the installation of her Public Art work Freeway Fets. For Ceremony, Nengudi collaborated with members of an Los Angeles-based artist collective called Studio Z that she was also a member of at that time – as were the participating artists Maren Hassinger, David Hammons and the late Franklin Parker (1945-2001). Nengudi designed costumes and head dresses, Hammons and Hassinger acted as male and female sprits, the members of Studio Z played improvised music. Freeway Fets comprised of objects made from Nengudi’s signature material, nylon mesh – none of which have survived. JE, BK


Courtesy Senga Nengudi

Document media
photographs

Issue date
1978

To be seen in
re.act.feminism #3 – polyphonies. interferences. drifts; re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive, 2022-2023, 2011-2014

Relations
Lorraine O'Grady
selected by Eden Tinto Collins for re.act.feminism #3


Tags
collectivity, dreamscapes

A
Ebtisam Abdulaziz
Marina Abramović
Helena Almeida
Eleanor Antin
Arahmaiani
Malin Arnell
Oreet Ashery
Augusta Atla
Margarita Azurdia
B
Antonia Baehr
Maja Bajević
Anne Bean
Anat Ben-David
Renate Bertlmann
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz
Nisrine Boukhari
Marijs Boulogne
Tania Bruguera
Nancy Buchanan
Maris Bustamante
C
Cabello / Carceller
Shirley Cameron/ Monica Ross/ Evelyn Silver
Graciela Carnevale
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Ève Gabriel Chabanon
Helen Chadwick
Chicks on Speed
Lygia Clark
Paul Clarke
Mary Coble
Colette
Cooltūristės
Corpus Deleicti
Nieves Correa
Laura Cottingham
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen
D
Katrina Daschner
Vlasta Delimar
Carola Dertnig
Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Disband
Ines Doujak
Orshi Drozdik
Yingmei Duan
Kirsten Dufour
Fabienne Dumont
E
Silvia Eiblmayr
Diamela Eltit
Rose English
VALIE EXPORT
F
F.F.F.F.
Factory of Found Clothes
Esther Ferrer
Les filles Föllen
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Angelika Fojtuch
Simone Forti
Coco Fusco
G
(e.) Twin Gabriel
Regina José Galindo
Anna Bella Geiger
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin
Patrycja German
Ghazel
Kate Gilmore
Trine Mee Sook Gleerup
H
Mona Hatoum
Lynn Hershman
High Heel Sisters
María Teresa Hincapié
Nan Hoover
I
Icelandic Love Corporation - Gjörningaklúbburinn
Sanja Iveković
J
Elżbieta Jabłońska
Françoise Janicot
Joan Jonas
Anne Jud
Birgit Jürgenssen
Kirsten Justesen
K
Kanonklubben
Line Skywalker Karlström
Tina Keane
Klonaris / Thomadaki
Bettina Knaup & Beatrice Ellen Stammer
Jakob Lena Knebl
Verica Kovacevska
Elena Kovylina
Katarzyna Kozyra
Christina Kubisch
Kvinder på Værtshus (Women down the pub)
Verena Kyselka
L
Nicola L
Latifa Laâbissi
Leslie Labowitz
Leslie Labowitz & Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy
Katalin Ladik
Sigalit Landau
Klara Lidén
Kalup Linzy
Natalia LL
Léa Lublin
M
Jumana Manna
Manon
MaraM
María Evelia Marmolejo
Muda Mathis
Dóra Maurer
Mónica Mayer
Ana Mendieta
Marta Minujín
Fina Miralles
Molly and me
Linda Montano
Charlotte Moorman
Teresa Murak
Sands Murray-Wassink
MwangiHutter
N
Narcissister
Rabbya Naseer & Hurmat Ul Ain
Senga Nengudi
Les Nyakes
O
Lorraine O'Grady
Itziar Okariz
Yoko Ono
ORLAN
Tanja Ostojić
Paulina Ołowska & Lucy McKenzie
Funda Özgünaydin
Hannah O’Shea
P
Gina Pane
Letícia Parente
Ewa Partum
Bojana Pejić
Jillian Peña
Performance Saga
Sanja Iveković & Performance Saga
Friederike Pezold
Howardena Pindell
Adrian Piper
Mariuccia Pisani
Polvo de Gallina Negra
Pussy Riot
R
Yvonne Rainer
Eglė Rakauskaitė
Laurence Rassel
Chris Regn
Jytte Rex
Àngels Ribé
La Ribot
Angelika Richter
Jesusa Rodríguez / Liliana Felipe
Ulrike Rosenbach
Martha Rosler
Boryana Rossa
María Ruido
S
Raeda Saadeh
Estíbaliz Sábada
Andrea Saemann
Zorka Ságlová
Les Salonnières and Dr. Soley
Christine Schlegel
Cornelia Schleime
Carolee Schneemann
Rebecca Schneider
Schwarze Schokolade
Stefanie Seibold
Stefanie Seibold & Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Miriam Sharon
Bonnie Ora Sherk
Barbara T. Smith
Cornelia Sollfrank
Antonieta Sosa
Spiderwoman Theater
Annie M. Sprinkle
Sandra Sterle
Gabriele Stötzer
Annika Ström
Melati Suryodarmo
Anna Szwajgier/ Zorka Wollny
T
Jinoos Taghizadeh
Milica Tomić
Mare Tralla
Teresa Tyszkiewicz
U
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
V
Valie Export Society
Cecilia Vicuña
W
The Waitresses
Faith Wilding
Hannah Wilke
Martha Wilson
Julita Wójcik
Y
Nil Yalter
Yeni & Nan