By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted from Wilmette, Illinois, US January 24, 2018)
Wangechi Mutu’s
art has been exhibited literally all over the world. The award-winning
multi-media artist who is unquestionably the best known Kenyan creative
anywhere has had exhibitions everywhere from London, Moscow and Johannesburg to
Paris, New Haven (where she got a Masters of Fine Art from Yale) and New York
where her 2014 one-woman show entitled ‘Wangechi Mutu: An Fantastic Journey’ at
the Brooklyn Museum of Art proved to be one of many watershed moments in her
extensive artistic career.
And yet,
Wangechi has never had a one-woman exhibition in Kenya. One has to wonder why
since I’m told she moved back to -- or at least in between – Nairobi and
Brooklyn some time ago.
What’s more,
she was born and raised in Nairobi, attended Loreto Convent Msongari and didn’t
leave for university studies until her late teens. She was also here in time to
witness the Mothers of Political Prisoners protests in the early 1990s which
she has referenced in interviews as having had a profound impact on her art.
In fact,
once one is able to unravel some of the intricacies and symbols in her art,
(which some see as beautiful, others note is fantastically (and consciously)
grotesque, but which I would describe as magical, surreal and ingenious), one
can appreciate that she has explored a wide range of political, social,
cultural and even anthropological themes in her work.
One art
critic simply said she explores ‘life, death and femininity’ in her art, which
is true but also a simplification. She also explores everything from the
effects of colonialism, war and sexism in her art.
The one
focus that’s been consistent in her work is her fascination with the female
figure which she sometimes fabricates with animal, machine, human and
plant-like features.
I was
fortunate to see one of Wangechi’s collage paintings (relatively) up close
recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. ‘That’s my death mask
you’re wearing’ which she create in 2004, made me wish I had been in Brooklyn
for her major ‘Fantastic Journey’ show.
But as much
as I would have loved to see her previous exhibition and would especially want
to see her work displayed in Kenya, I understand that this 40-something year
old artist has been busy since she (like Lupita Nyong’o) completed her studies
at Yale.
She’s also
been very blessed, having had wonderfully-well received exhibitions everywhere
she’s shown her art.
For
instance, she was named ‘Artist of the Year’ by the Brooklyn Museum where her
‘Fantastic Journey’ not only featured more than 50 of her incredible works, aptly
described as ‘feminine and futuristic’. It included one monumental multi-media
mural as well as her brilliantly animated video, ‘The End of Eating Everything’
which she collaborated on with another feminist artist Santigold.
She was also described as a ‘super woman’ and ‘feminist
sculptor’ by one arts critic who noted that Wangechi may be primarily known for
her ‘wild collage’ paintings (a term coined by Teju Cole in the Guardian). But
she is also a sculptor and performance artist as well as a photographer,
painter and filmmaker.
That
reporter also described Wangechi as a ‘homegrown feminist’ since the artist
herself has said she grew up in a matriarchal household (in Nyeri) and never
doubted that equality among women and men was the norm.
That message,
that feminism needs to be recognized as normative, is one that both women and
men in Kenya need to hear and understand more clearly. I suggest it could best
revealed and explored more fully through a solo exhibition in Kenya by
Wangechi. That way, we would have the opportunity to see her art up close and
personal.
After all, her
art has gone all over the world. Perhaps now it is time for it to be shown back
home, especially now that the contemporary art scene in Kenya has been
radically transformed since she left in the early 1990s.
Welcome home
Wangechi!
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