Tiffany Hughes
Mr. Ryan Gallagher
English 12 CP Period 6
23 March 2009
Wangechi Mutu: Research Project

African artist Wangechi Mutu has created very interesting and beautiful art work in galleries in America with her crazy and disturbing collages from pictures out of fashion magazines and also in porn magazines. Mutu's art work are creative because she sometimes begins with a picture of a woman cut out from a magazine or maybe a coffee table book and begins making art. But she also mix up the image by cutting it into pieces, rearranging it, and adding other materials until the woman that was cut out of the magazine looked freakish or crazy. The people Mutu creates in her pictures seemed to tell a lot stories within them. Most of the stories in the pictures are about traditional African womanhood mixed with by the influences of American ideals of beauty and some of them seem to also show a sad story about women's pain and anger, her art work can be so emotional. Wangechi Mutu was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1972. Her upbringing was modern and urban, and she was puzzled by the Western tendency to think of Africa in terms of its rural, traditional cultures. She currently lives and works in New York. She moved to New York in the 1990s to study anthropology and fine art at Cooper Union in1996, and Yale University in 2000. She creates painted and collaged images of female figures, first painting outline images on Mylar, then adding detail with photographic fragments of idealized women collected from print magazines. Mutu has trained as both a sculptor and anthropologist (Murray 205).
Wangechi Mutu has created a multitude of interesting, crazy, gruesome, and also very beautiful art work all in one sometimes. One thing that Mutu always seem to do in her pictures is that she includes her African heritage with most of her art. She commonly create a picture that involves the African American's struggle's, pain, sadness, hard ache and insecurities but she also includes happiness and love, sometimes she combines the two and make beautiful art for example: In "Untitled", Mutu uses strange textures to draw a wide range of character's, from glamour models, to dyed fabrics, diseased skin, and science fiction special effects. Her goddess-like figure becomes an embodiment of the art work of modern Africa, caught in the flux of Western preconception, internal turmoil, ancient tradition, and blossoming future (Kazanjian 214).
In the picture ovarian cysts, the picture shows you a multitude of images. The main image that stands out is the image of this black skull figure that looks pretty scary and weird. The next images are pictures of legs that are bent and wearing heels (stripper heels), and the color of the legs are brown which let you know that they are African American woman that might be either strippers or porn stars or most likely both. Also, in the brain area of the skull theirs a man there that seems to be a doctor holding two skulls in his hands, he seems to be observing them and also there's a bunch of skull head's surrounding him and the two skull head's in his two hands. And finally in the background there a picture of old 1930 medical diagram of an ovarian cyst. the definition of the ovarian cyst is: any collection of fluid, surrounded by a very thin wall, within an ovary. Any ovarian follicle that is larger than about two centimeters is termed an ovarian cyst. An ovarian cyst can be as small as a pea, or larger than a cantaloupe. Most ovarian cysts are functional in nature, and harmless or benign. Ovarian cysts are found in nearly all premenopausal women, and in up to 14.8% of postmenopausal women. Ovarian cysts affect women of all ages. They occur most often, however, during a woman's childbearing years. Some ovarian cysts cause problems, such as bleeding and pain. Surgery may be required to remove cysts larger than 5 centimeters in diameter."Wangechi Mutu uses collage as a metaphor for the shifting concepts of global identity. In Ovarian Cysts Mutu unites a medical diagram, an archaeological photograph, and kitsch advertisement within a glittery death-head; each element conveying disjointed and dislocated associations of Africa. Drawing from colonialism, ancient history, contemporary politics, and lifestyle ideals, Mutu creates an emblem of tribute, encompassing both a tormented past and powerful future".
In the picture cancer of the uterus, the picture shows you so many images in the picture. The main image that pops- out is this black glittery image and on the side you see like a fluffy white hair like thing on the side of this characters face. Then you see this big shiny red top lip and on the bottom you see this burgundy colored lip and you also see these two Caucasian blue eyes that seem to be sad. And finally you see this old diagram of a cancerous uterus. I believe this picture is about self image just like the image in "Adult Female Sexual Organs." That picture in my own words is about a woman suffering with her insecurities of being an African woman and wanting to have western qualities about herself for example I thought the woman wanted to be white because she had white cotton balls on her face and a white fashion model in her brain area that I believe is symbolizing her wanting to be white. In the pictures "Cancer of the Uterus" and "Adult Female Sexual Organs" shares some similarities because they seem to share body image insecurities with wanting to be a different race. The picture cancer of the uterus in my own words is about this character that wants to be black but is not sure because that character likes being white that’s what the white glittery spots represents on that characters face. And also while this character is having these body image issues and insecurities it's also giving this character a cancer that is growing inside their uterus because of this character's situation."Wangechi Mutu’s collages seem both ancient and futuristic; her figures aspire as a super-race, by-products of a troubled and imposed evolution. In Cancer of the Uterus, her figure is an ominous goddess; pasted over a pathology diagram, her portrait is diseased at the core. Mutu uses materials which make reference to African identity and political strife: her dazzling black glitter is an abyss of western desire, which allude to the illegal diamond trade and its consequences of oppression and war. From corruption and violence, Mutu creates a glamorous beauty; her figures empowered by their survivalist adjustment to atrocity, made immune and ‘improved’ by horror and being victims".
In the painting "Mask" the woman that seems to be a model kind of has a mask on her face everything is covered except her eyes which seems to look a little devious (devious- not straight forward; shifty, departing from the correct or accepted way; erring, deviating from the straight or direct course; round about, away from a main road of course; distant or removed) her eyes are almost saying: "I have a hidden little secret and nobody knows but me. There's also a rock mask figure on her body the mask is unattractive which represents an ugly body in the inside which also makes her outside ugly with the horn like hair in the picture, I think it symbolizes that her inside is hard as a rock, ugly, and cold because most rocks are cold (rock- a mineral matter of variable composition, consolidated or unconsolidated, assembled in masses or considerable quantities in nature, as by the action of heat or water, a firm foundation or support.)So meaning her personality, her soul is ugly. And the model also has her arm covering her body because she's insecure so that gives her a cold personality. And there is also a picture behind the model maybe it's something in her past, something hard and dark which makes the person she is today.
For my description on "Adult Female Sexual Organs", there's a picture of an African American woman's skin tone is very very black! Almost as if the picture was taken in black and white. The woman’s lips are huge! With red lipstick, I believe the red lipstick on her huge lips dignifies her strive to becoming a beautiful women in he mind, and also the color red symbolizes anger to see red is to become very angry; become enraged; so when I view this red color of lipstick on her lips the woman probably has anger maybe about her looks she maybe is angered about her insecurities on her skin color, lips, and maybe race. The picture also shows that the woman has brown wrapping tape on her face, covering everything except her eyes, nose, lips, and her thoughts about a white model. I believe the white fashion model represents the person that she wants to be in life. My thoughts are that she wants to be the white fashion model because she looks happy, beautiful, fashionable and white! The definition of white is auspicious or fortunate, morally pure; innocent, without malice; harmless; decent, honorable, or dependable. Ex: “that’s very white of you". A color without hue at one extreme end of the scale of grays, opposite to black. A white surface reflects light of all hues completely and diffusely: most so-called whites are very light grays: fresh snow, for example reflects about 80 percent of the incident light. It is the ultimate limit of a series of shades of any color. The definition of white has a lot of good meaning to it, knowing that, i believe the woman in the painting wanted to be white and have those good meanings about her. The definition of black is: soiled or stained with dirt, gloomy; pessimistic; dismal, deliberately harmful; inexcusable, boding ill; sullen or hostile; threatening; without any moral quality or goodness; evil; wicked; indicating censure, disgrace; or liability to punishment, marked loyaisaster or misfortune: based on the grotesque, morbid, or unpleasant aspects of life, done or written in black to indicate, as on a list, that which is undesirable, sub-standard, potentially dangerous. The meaning of black has a lot of dark, sinister meaning to it. After knowing the definition of black it doesn’t think anyone would want to call themselves black, the woman in the picture is so black! She doesn't see anything good about herself so she wants to be something pure, clean, and expectable, maybe she tried to become a fashion model also but she couldn't because her look was unacceptable, she was to black, maybe if she was really trying to be a fashion model race probably played a big part with her not making her dream come true, people probably thought of her as dirty and unreliable. So maybe that’s the reason why she has a picture of a white fashion model in her mind. In the picture the women also has light brown wrapping duct tape on most of her face. The duct tape is way lighter than her actual skin color that she would hopefully like to have as an African American but she can't so she put the duct tape there to represent the skin color that she wants to have. Being light brown like the wrapping duct tape would be the next best thing to a white skin color. And also the picture has a white patch of cotton on her face. Cotton means: a soft, white, downy substance consisting of the hairs or fibers attached to the seeds of plants belonging to the genus Gossypium, of the mollow family, used in making fabrics, thread, wadding, etc. to become fond of; begin to like, to approve of; agree with it come to a full understanding of; grasp. Maybe the cotton represents the women being soft and peacefully and also white or maybe it's something she wants to be in life soft and white. In the back of the head there is a part of the brain that is showing which the cerebellum is. The cerebellum is the trilobed structure of the brain, lying posterior to the Pons and medulla oblongata and inferior to the occipital lobes of the cerebral hemispheres, that is responsible for the regulation and coordination of complex voluntary muscular movement as well as the maintenance of posture and balance. So I believe the artist concluded the cerebellum to show that even though this character might be feeling ugly or insecure she still keeps her head up, she still has her pride in being a dark African American woman.
"Adult Female Sexual Organs" is a picture made by Mutu that plenty of people could understand mainly women. When people first see the picture they can quickly understand what the picture was about. In my own words I believe the picture is about an African woman that has a multitude of insecurities, in this picture I think Mutu is trying to show in this picture that some dark African women would love to be white and have lighter skin, because maybe it’s more excepting in society. Mutu cuts out and paste this picture of a white women that seems to look happy, you can see that she puts this picture in her brain because it depicts what she wants to be in life, a white woman, model, or both but she can’t because of her facial features and her dark skin. The head is a caricatured mask – made of packing tape, its material makes reference to bandages, migration, and cheap ‘quick-fix’ solutions. Mutu portrays the inner and outer ideals of self with physical attributes clipped from lifestyle magazines: the woman’s face being a racial distortion, her mind occupied by a prototypical white model. "Wangechi Mutu observes: "Females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body." Piecing together magazine imagery with painted surfaces and found materials, Mutu’s collages explore the split nature of cultural identity, referencing colonial history, fashion and contemporary African politics (Cox l). In another picture Mutu created is the picture "Mask". Mutu creates this woman that seems to be a model and she also seems to have insecurities about her own body image because in the picture the model covers herself with her arm and she also has this stone type mask that covers half of her face. The whole story on the picture "Mask" is about a beautiful black model that has a lot of body image issues, an ugly inside, and with a dark past. “Encasing the woman’s body and face in a cut out of a voodoo sculpture, Mutu envelops her cover girl as a product of typecast desire and role-play: warrior-princess, S&M freak, chastity-belted virgin. Overlapping the controversial facets of cultural association, Mutu’s figure beacons as a subversive dominatrix, shrewdly co-opting the rules of hierarchy, power, and manipulation" (Enright 28-46).