Nicola L. explores the generative contradictions of womanhood

Nicola L. explores the generative contradictions of womanhood

LONDON — Wearable objects that resemble empty skins, full of openings, sleeves, eyeholes and zippers, populate the late artist Nicola L.’s long-running sculptural series. Pénétrables (ca. 1960–2018). Many of them were originally designed as participatory works, inviting viewers to insert arms, legs or faces in a humorous and gruesome enlivenment of sagging, hollow bodies.

For conservation purposes, visitors of Nicola L.: I am the last feminine object at the Camden Art Center the original works are not allowed to be touched. At the heart of the exhibition, however, is an ambitious – and tangible – reconstruction of ‘Fur Room’ (1970/2020), which was shown in the gallery 50 years ago in a group exhibition entitled Soft art. The piece consists of a cube-shaped metal armature wrapped in purple faux fur. Each facet of this room-within-a-room includes empty ‘skins’ in the same material; legs, arms and balaclava-like masks flop off the walls, floor and ceiling.

The experience of pushing a hand into a soft sleeve was at once comforting and sinister, sensual and chilling, just as it is deeply disturbing to see skin being filled by an anonymous limb. The shapes simultaneously evoke coziness and discomfort and are reminiscent of both woolly pajamas and protective suits. Although the soft fur is enticingly tactile, I was disgusted by the idea of ​​it getting dirty, sweaty or contaminated.

The exhibition itself effectively exposes the awkwardness of participatory artworks. I found myself struggling to discern and navigate unspoken rules of behavior in the near silence of the brightly lit gallery. Then came the physical discomfort of interacting with the fur room, which requires an act of trust from the visitor as he buries himself into the contours of the soft purple fabric. This nuanced series of physical and social relationships resembles the awkwardness of sexual encounters, which, like Nicola L.’s sculptures, can be beautiful, humorous and threatening at the same time.

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Gender relations underline the exhibition and Nicola L.’s practice as a whole, both explicitly and implicitly. Her use of the term “pénétrables” reminds us that the female body can be defined by its permeability – and yet the complex associations of these works point to the potentially generative contradictions of the female experience, which can simultaneously include, for example, oppressive objectification and the creative act of childbirth. In Nicola L.’s world, the female body can be both vulnerable and protective, an objectified opening and a multifaceted entity.

These contradictions characterize Nicola L.’s work, which plays with the fluid interrelationships between life and art, opposing emotional states, and the cosmological and the mundane. Lots of pieces inside I am the last female object relate to household items, such as her pénétrable ‘Grey Rug for Five People’ (1975) or her various sculptural benches in the shape of feet or dismembered men and women, their body parts arranged like pillows.

The exhibition consistently demonstrates Nicola L’s interest in the treacherous intersection between domestic objects and gendered human forms and behaviors. This is especially evident in the work from which the exhibition takes its title, ‘Little TV Woman’ (1969), a colossal, faceless stuffed doll with drawers in her breasts and pelvis, and a television in her stomach. The text on the screen reads: “I am the last woman object. You can grab my lips, touch my breasts, caress my stomach, my sex. But I repeat. It’s the last time.” This oxymoronic statement of resistance is both reinforced and undermined by its permanent state of repetition. Will women ever really be objectified for the last time?

Nicola L.: I am the last feminine object continues until December 29 at the Camden Art Center (Arkwright Road, London, United Kingdom). The exhibition was curated by Martin Clark.

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