Same Skin for Everyone: Nicola L. in the ‘Made in L.A.’ Biennial
Nicola L. in Penetrable at the Chelsea Hotel, New York, 1991. Photo: Estate of the artist.
Nicola L. is a name everyone should know. While she received little attention during her life (she passed away in Los Angeles almost two years ago), Nicola’s legacy is honored with her work brought back into view as one of 30 artists included in the new “Made in L.A. 2020: a version” biennial exhibition at the Hammer Museum and Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden.
Best known for her body-as-object depictions of the female figure in her inherently feminist sculptures, French Pop artist Nicola L. was a revolutionary of her time and one of the first to dissolve the boundaries between art, furniture and design. Her work, consisting of functional sculptures like La Femme Commode (1969) and Little TV Woman: 'I Am the Last Woman Object' (1969), speak to the plight of the female gender in society’s relegation of its value to physical form. Her anthropomorphic sculptures represent objectification of the female body in its truest sense and often serve as functional pieces: body parts that serve as drawers or cabinets that can be opened and objects placed inside, an empty head containing shelves to place one’s books, appendages that are simultaneously membered and dismembered, put together and not at all. They remind us of the value we give to women’s bodies, not for their inherent beauty, but for how they serve and provide use for others.
Her exploration of corporality and body as statement is also pertinent to her less gendered, wearable works including those on display in the new ‘Made in L.A.’ exhibition, where she addresses notions of how social relationships are often imposed by our physical body.
Nicola L. La Chambre en Fourrure, 1969. Synthetic fur, aluminum. 120 x 192 x 156. Nicola L. Estate
Nicola L. La Chambre en Fourrure, 1969. Made in L.A. 2020: a version. Installation view at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White / JWPictures.com.
A large, purple, four-walled and fur-lined structure with fabric attachments for which one can insert his or her legs, arms, and head, La Chambre en Fourrure (the fur room) is a participatory installation at the Hammer Museum with which the artist asks the viewer to quite literally become one with her work. With attachments to accommodate several people simultaneously, this wearable installation is at the same time monstrous and poetically comforting, presenting the opportunity for multiple people to join together in becoming part of the same structure and in a sense, inside the same skin. Assembled next to a plaque that says “Same Skin for Everyone,” this structure no doubt says something about an individual’s social skin and plays upon the notions of what could be possible with a ‘same skin for everyone.’ When skin is typically understood as what separates us from one another, in the work of Nicola L. it’s what connects and brings us together.
In its presentation at the Hammer, La Chambre en Fourrure is a reconstitution of an archival piece she made in the ‘60s that had been destroyed. Working with her sons, Christophe and David Lanzenberg, as well as local craftsmen, curators Myriam Ben Salah, Lauren Mackler, and Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi impressively re-created this installation based entirely on archival photographs.
Nicola L. Pénétrables. Made in L.A. 2020: a version. Installation view at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino. Photo: Joshua White / JWPictures.com.
Equally noteworthy is her series of Pénétrables, a group of rectangular, canvas wall hangings into which the viewer could theoretically introduce themselves if only they weren’t hung on the wall. With allowances for the form of the human body, so that the head, arms and legs could protrude from the picture plane, Nicola’s Pénétrables tempt the viewer to get inside the work and breach another dimension. On view at the Huntington, these life-size hangings are at once playful and also horrific in their unfilled, human forms. With text like “FLOWER,” “FOREST,” and “WE DON’T WANT WAR” printed across the chest, these hangings prompt us to consider notions of skin as sign. Each has a different meaning. These works play upon the idea of how the skin we are in plays a part in the creation of meaning of who we are, how we are perceived and interacted with socially.
It was her teacher, art critic Pierre Restany who first introduced Nicola to the work of the French Nouveau Realists and impressed upon her the idea of using existing objects and materials in a critic of consumerist culture. Ultimately, the fact that these Pénétrables, are something one could theoretically buy, as an object for sale and use, speaks to this concept greatly, as well as her contribution to this movement in the commodification of the body as identity.
Nicola L. Pénétrables. Made in L.A. 2020: a version. Installation view at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino. Photo: Joshua White / JWPictures.com.
“The interaction of the viewer with the work (…) and penetration of the canvas was really an interesting move in terms of breaking the traditional relationship and sacralization of artworks and institutional display,” notes curators Ben Salah, Mackler and Onyewuenyi. The theme of ‘breaking the fourth wall’ is one consistent throughout a variety of works in the exhibition but is particularly relevant to the works of Nicola L.
In today’s Instagram-obsessed world where exhibitions become increasingly experiential in favor of their ability to be documented and posted to social platforms online, the potential for a work such as La Chambre en Fourrure is tremendous. If it weren’t for the pandemic, La Chambre en Fourrure might have been up there as one of the most “Instagrammed” art works of 2020 and no doubt would have helped bolster the reputation of an artist so deserving of it.
However, the exhibit still remains closed to the public due to COVID-19 restrictions. “What was about playfulness and sensuality all of a sudden became the symbol of danger in a world in which touch and skin and contact are vectors of contamination,” says Ben Salah, Mackler, and Onyewuenyi. Even once opened, visitors will most likely be unable to participate in La Chambre en Fourrure, which, in a sense, makes a work such as this even more meaningful during a time when social distancing, isolation and quarantine make us more starved for connection than ever before.