Modeling the Psyche: Nene Humphrey’s Multisensory Enactment of Empathetic Entanglement

Abstract

Since 2005, Nene Humphrey has been artist-in-residence at Joseph LeDoux's laboratory at the Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU). As neurosciendsts at this lab have been trying to untangle the synaptic relations that underlie emotion, Humphrey has been hard at work entangling lines, wire threads, and wool fibers in order to render neural communication perceptible. Through her drawing and sculptural practice, she has sought to make sense of incommensurable experiences such as pain or loss. While engaging in interdisciplinary inquiries, Humphrey found observing neural connections under the microscope intriguing, yet insufficient for grasping the dynamic qualities of experience and its deep, longterm imprint on the psyche. Hence, she has transitioned from focusing primarily on drawing the dense texture of neural fibers to enacting multimedia performances that convey the transformations undergone by synaptic relations over the course of time. Humphrey's art practice has pivoted around several major poles of interest, including questions concerning the precariousness of matter, the fragility of memory, and the significant role of tactility in our interaction with the world. Hence, it should come as no surprise that she challenged neuroscientists at the NYU lab to take part in a somewhat atypical mode of inquiry into the materiality of the brain. She asked them to use Plasticine to model the shape of the amygdala--the widely acknowledged center of emotion located in the temporal lobe. This modest act may appear inconsequential, but it actually serves as a key reminder of the visceral materiality of the brain at a time when most neuroscientists focus extensively on mapping mental activity based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Through such material exchanges of knowledge, Humphrey tries to get one step closer to understanding how experiences take shape in the embodied mind. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Starting with the early stages of her artistic career in the 1970s, Humphrey was fascinated with creating material representations of imaginary worlds composed of abstract shapes. Medieval Landscape (1979-81) is a mixed-media installation evocative of a journey to a remote time and place. Fluffy clouds made of cotton and supported by long bamboo stalks guard a seemingly deserted terrain, marked by the presence of an imposing semicircle evocative of the sun and a relatively modest pyramidal shape connotative of the desire for shelter. This perfecdy balanced tableau conveys a sense of mystical order, referencing both a cyclical time of perpetual return and a potentially irretrievable connection to the experience of time of a long past civilization. From an initial interest in conceiving minimalist topologies inspired by her interest in cosmology, Humphrey gradually shifted her attention to an exploration of the complex inner landscape of psychic experience. Her Double Dream series (1989-90) comprises precariously balanced abstract shapes made of plaster and wire that suggest liminal states of mind. This migration from sculptures evocative of the environment to objects reminiscent of the malleable architecture of the human body brings to mind Anish Kapoor's art practice, which underwent a somewhat similar transition from the late 1970s onward. Humphrey's works have an intimate quality because of their relatively small scale and highly plastic materials (e.g., wax, plaster, wire), which showcase the imprint of the human touch. Throughout the 1980s, her sculptural and drawing practice abounded with references to states of bodily entrapment. Compressed plaster spheres, wiggling wires streaming out of small ovoid shapes, slighdy irregular geometric forms on the verge of collapse or growth--all these elements alluded to physical and psychic change. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over the past two decades, Humphrey's works have focused on pain and loss as part of a persistent exploration of the role of impermanence in human existence. …