WANGECHI MUTU

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Brief Bio• Born 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya

• Currently lives and works in NY

• BFA in Art from Cooper Union ‘96

• MFA in Sculpture from Yale Univ. ’00

• Trained anthropologist

• Specialty is mixed media using video, installations, and sculpture.

• Best known for her large scale collages on pieces of Mylar

“ Collage tells us not just what cultures have produced but what they’ve fostered.. If you want to know what an animal’s system is about, you look at its shit, like elephant dung. If you want to know where the animal has been and whether it’s healthy, you sift through its stool. That’s a little bit what it’s like when I look at media . . .”

PROCESS & INSPIRATION

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“Females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.” – Wangechi Mutu

• Mutu’s work explores issues of sexuality, wounding, race, exile, pleasure, greed, war, colonialism and trauma

• Collages are constructed from magazine cutouts, sculpted and painted surfaces, and found materials.

• A hybrid of human and animal-like elements intertwined with abstract patterns and textures

• Installations are also comprised mostly of found materials

• Inspired by African mysticism and mythology

• Installations and sculptures are more political and environmental, dealing with war, consumption, and wealth

MUTU’SWORK

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”Suspended Playtime", 2008 - garbage bags, gold twine

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“Perhaps the Moon Will Save Us” 2008 blankets, plastic pearls, aluminium foil, animal pelts, clothing, photo collage, packing tape, ink, paint dimensions variable"

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Mountetas, 2008, packing tape, wood, hardware, ink.

“I think that unless we decide to have an apocalypse in order to clean the slate, in order to start again, we really do have to pick up pieces and remake and rework things and translate them into something new and hopeful.”

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Exhuming Gluttony, Another Requiem 2011- animal pelts, wood, bottles, wine, packing tape, blankets, electrical components, synthetic hair, dimensions variable.

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Exhuming Gluttony, Another Requiem 2011 - animal pelts, wood, bottles, wine, packing tape, blankets, electrical components, synthetic hair, dimensions variable.

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Blackthrones, 2011 - Wooden chair, plastic, synthetic hair, tinsel.

+ “Perception is so subjective, so mutable and so powerful because it can be sculpted and moved around, and that is the essence of how I work. I juxtapose and slice up reality and fiction quite easily because I’m aware that it is up for grabs and a powerful tool to explain how we take control of our reality and use it to send messages. It’s something I’ve always had.”

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"She seas dance", 2012, Iridescent, white and gold PVC, Louver styrene, 3 channel projections

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"Nitarudi Ninarudi, I plan to return I am returning; Kibaba installation", 2012, Mixed Media, Variable, 12 individual works

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