Senga Nengudi
2014
Support for a project expanding upon the artist’s ongoing sculpture and performance practice that involves the composition of unique personal symphonies.
I am recognized for my RSVP series of sculptures. This series mimics in abstract the sensuality and elasticity of the body and psyche, reflecting the toll that inside and outside pressures have on our mortal selves. My current research maintains that interest in body responses to stimuli. This investigation is more communal and collaborative. I am conscious of how I take in the world with my human senses and the pulse rate/vibrational levels that these encounters have. I marvel at how differently we all take in the world because of markers by which we are ruled: cultural and ethnic backgrounds, educational level, age, political points of view, and general life experiences. Working in collaboration with specialists, I plan to develop equipment that will register vibrational levels when people are shown a set of the same stimuli. These registered vibrations will be assigned musical chords. The result: an individual’s musical score in response to life, put together as a symphony.