Fluid Embodiments: On Senga Nengudi’s Water Compositions

• In Event: Black Sexual Ecologies of the Americas

Description for Program

This paper analyzes Senga Nengudi's Water Composition series and its exploration of the Black body's relationship to liquidity and plasticity. By using dyed water in vinyl pouches, Nengudi blurs the lines between sculpture, installation, and performance, encouraging viewers to engage with sculptures that embody a "sense of body." I argue that the Water Compositions create a haptic, visceral experience, transcending static notions of the body and embracing movement, flow, and plasticity. Nengudi's innovative Black abstract art foregrounds water's material and metaphorical qualities as vehicles for self-expression and resistance. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates how Nengudi's Water Compositions offer a new language for expressing fluid, multidimensional experiences of selfhood.

Author

• Rosed Serrano, University of Pennsylvania