Nicola L. Probes the Generative Contradictions of Womanhood
Anna Souter, Hyperallergic
October 2024
Wearable objects resembling empty skins, replete with openings, sleeves, eye holes, and zips, populate late artist Nicola L.’s long-running sculptural series Pénétrables (c. 1960–2018). Many of them were originally designed as participatory works, with viewers invited to insert arms, legs, or faces in a humorous and horrifying enlivening of sagging, hollow bodies.
For conservation purposes, visitors to Nicola L.: I Am the Last Woman Object at the Camden Art Centre are not allowed to touch the original works. However, at the heart of the exhibition is an ambitious — and touchable — reconstruction of ‘Fur Room’ (1970/2020), which was shown at the gallery 50 years ago in a group show titled Soft Art. The piece consists of a cubic metal armature encased in purple faux fur. Every facet of this room-within-a-room includes empty ‘skins’ in the same material; legs, arms, and balaclava-like masks flop from the walls, floor, and ceiling.