On Point: Wangechi Mutu This You Call Civilization
AGO 2010 Exhibit Wangechi Mutu
Wangechi Mutu at work in her Brooklyn Studio in conversation with art curator David Moos from AGO Gallery in Ontario, Canada.
Mutu’s work tackles hard topic of hyper-sexualized Black females in her work, and at the same time she challenges the viewer to rethink their concept of the black female body. She composes intricate collages assembled from scraps of visual images from fashion magazines or medical journal then she overlays broad strokes of watercolor to give a sensibility of transparency ambiance. At times the viewer might find her work disturbing because of the vial content the position of the female bodies or the politics of violence. She also shows her women as empowered figures.
Wangechi Mutu’s work boldly explores the contradictions of female and cultural identity, drawing the viewer into conversations about beauty, consumerism, colonialism, race, and gender. Her representation of the human forms are disturbing and transfixing, at once utterly complex and strikingly direct.
