 |
| Wangechi Mutu, Mountain of Prayer, 2014, Collage painting on vinyl, 30.5 x 35.5 inches. Private collection. Image via victoria-miro.com. |
Nguva na
Nyoka
October 14 – December 19, 2014
16 Wharf
Road
London, UK
From victoria-miro.com:
Victoria
Miro is delighted to present the gallery’s second exhibition by Wangechi Mutu, widely known for her
elaborate collages that explore and subvert cultural preconceptions of the
female body and the feminine.
Mutu’s
practice has been described as engaging in her own unique form of myth-making.
This exhibition, Nguva na Nyoka
(meaning “Sirens and Serpents” in Kiswahili) presents Mutu's latest body of
collage, video and sculptural works. Drawing on such diverse references as East
African coastal mythologies (particularly of nguvas, or water women), gender and racial politics, Western
popular culture, Eastern and ancient beliefs and autobiography, in her works
Mutu proposes worlds within worlds, populated by powerful hybridized female
figures.
Mutu’s
latest collage-paintings are defined by a shift away from her much-documented
use of Mylar as a substrate to a use of vinyl and linoleum as the basis for the
works, allowing for a more densely textured and sculptural ground. Painterly techniques are employed alongside
Mutu’s signature construction of images comprised of deftly cut-out and
collaged forms. In addition, Mutu’s visual language is further enriched in
these works by her use of unexpected materials such as tea, batik fabrics,
synthetic hair, Kenyan soil, feathers, and sand, amongst other media – many of
which are imbued with their own cultural significations.
The interweaving
of fact with
fiction and an
extension of the
possibilities for yet
another group of
symbolic female characterizations
that co-exist in various cultures as another understanding (or constructing) of
femaleness underpins this new body
of work. The
exhibition will also
feature a video,
entitled Nguva, a multi-tiered
performance featuring the
mesmeric eponymous role: a mysterious aquatic character who emerges from
the sea onto land and wanders, restless, vicious and curious.
