WANGECHI MUTU AT NEW MUSEUM, NYC 6/2/23

 

I have attended almost all of Wangechi Mutu’s exhibitions in NYC over the years, and the effect on me, from the early pieces to the most recent bronze sculptures, has been profound. Her use of collage as an art form - one in which I once felt Hannah Hoch dominated - attained new levels of personal and political expression equal in range and breadth to exquisite and majestic paintings. These works at The New Museum closing June 6th, literally unearth the Kenyan soil - dry sand and deep red mud embodying the beauty and scourge of her homeland. Writhing cutout female figures containing imagery reminiscent of flayed animal flesh with a contagion crawling through the skin gives us a sense of what is “seen and unseen.” Mutu uses medical illustrations for one of her series of women’s faces describing death and disease - viruses brewing below the surface waiting to erupt.

Her potent satirical collages also speak to Western myths about Africa - women tattooed with leopard skin bodies and contorted faces romping around the landscape’s reeds and bark trees like insects collapsing into fetal positions - glitter and mylar bringing light and color unto their bowed bodies. There is always a stunning dream-like fascination with Mutu’s world of women which captivates and draws us to them - repulsion and seduction are compelling forces that bewitch and beguile.

Seeing this mini-retrospective at The New Museum helped me to better understand her large bronze sci-fi sculptures. They are a logical transformation from paper pulp and wood to molten metal. The surfaces are shiny with sleek ribbings. Women are conjoined with crocodilians and other imaginary creatures as if emerging out of cocoons - or seated atop them like noble blossoming royalty.