THE DES MOINES ART CENTER Work by Wangechi Mutu Written by: Laura Burkhalter, Curatorial Manager I n this issue, Laura Burkhalter, Curatorial Manager at the Des Moines Art Center introduces a work by Wangechi Mutu, one of the most prominent sculptors working in the world today. Born in Kenya, but living in America since the 1990s, Mutu has used video, photography, and sculpture to revolutionize the way Black women are portrayed in art. She combines influences from fashion, history, and folklore to create figures that acknowledge the trauma and misrepresentation Black women have often had to endure. Her female figures are powerful, conveying a new type of beauty and intense emotional presence. Created in 2017, Mutu’s Water Woman is a stylized, black bronze sculpture of a nguva, a water-woman of East African folklore that blends human characteristics with those of the dugong, an endangered relative of the manatee. The artist has said the nguva represents “bewitching female aquatic being with powers to entrance and drown susceptible mortals.” She created several depictions of this mythical creature, each with a distinct personality. In our version, the strong, alert pose and direct gaze Mutu has sculpted for the figure make her strength clear and command respect. Because the work is almost the same size as a person, she is impossible to ignore. The luminous bronze catches the light, and replicates dark, wet skin. Mutu has even chosen the color of the pedestal this artwork sits on, making sure it suggests a muddy pond or riverbank. Water Woman’s features and hair style are inspired by African traditions and art history as well as figures from science fiction. This combination enhances the effect of Mutu’s art, making her women seem both ancient and futuristic at the same time. It also ties the artist’s work to the wider cultural movement of Afrofuturism, and its important ideas of discovery, celebration, and possibility. Water Woman can also be seen as a reminder of humanity’s connection to nature. Throughout her work, Mutu has used various types of female-animal hybrids to comment on environmental issues and commercialization. In addition to Water Woman, the Art Center owns a watercolor collage by Mutu, which features a human body adorned with green metallic lizard-skin dots and glitter-covered leaves. She is particularly interested in the impact American and European culture and colonialism has had on African culture and natural resources. Mutu has studios in both New York and Kenya and brings an awareness of how interconnected we are to her artwork. Water Woman in particular suggests that humanity and nature are not only intertwined, but both have powers that can threaten one another. Mutu’s art has been exhibited and collected by important art institutions around the globe. In 2019, she was invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to create four sculptures for the exterior façade of the building. Titled The New One, will free us and looking like a combination of African-inspired ancient gods and celestial aliens, Mutu’s giant sculptures filled four ledges that had been vacant for over 115 years, and welcomed the Met’s millions of visitors for a year. Water Woman is currently on view in the Des Moines Art Center’s Pei building. Admission to the galleries is always free, and we welcome you to visit. For more information about hours and programs, please visit desmoinesartcenter.org or find us on Facebook and Instagram. Photo credit: Wangechi Mutu (Kenyan-American, born 1972) Water Woman, 2017. Bronze. 36 x 65 x 70 inches. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc., 2017.25 Photo credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
28 Publizr Home