Maren Hassinger & Senga Nengudi: Las Vegas Ikebana (PB) (2024)

A richly illustrated guide to the somatic, conversational practice of the underrecognized artist duo

In the 1970s, a group of Black artists gathered together in David Hammond's Los Angeles dancehall-turned-studio, forging the loose artist collective Studio Z. Two such artists were Maren Hassinger (born 1947) and Senga Nengudi (born 1943), who shared an abiding interest in dance and its potential applications to other mediums, particularly sculpture and performance art. Thus began a fecund collaboration and a lifelong friendship.
Las Vegas Ikebana is the first-ever monograph to focus on the pioneering duo's collective cross-genre work, gathering together a range of never-before-seen or rarely presented pieces. Object plates and installation images are enriched by texts from Nengudi and Hassinger, as well as those by curators Lowery Stokes Sims and Leslie King Hammond--all of whom expound upon the crucial system of support that arose from the duo's shared practice during periods of institutional neglect.