Exhibition Review: Wangechi Mutu | Intertwined
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
Written by Wenjie (Demi) Zhao
Copy Edited by Kee’nan Haggen
Photo Edited by Athena Abdien
Currently on view at the New Museum from March 2nd to June 4th is the major solo exhibition of Wangechi Mutu titled Intertwined. Mutu, a visual artist born in Nairobi, Kenya, and now residing in New York, is known for her captivating collages, sculptures, and installations. With over 100 pieces from Mutu's career spanning 25 years, Intertwined offers the most comprehensive overview and introduction to the artist's creative output from the 90s to date. This exhibition marks the first time the New Museum has dedicated all seven floors to a single artist since its establishment.
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
Mutu is best known for her collages, which combine images of human forms, animals, and natural elements to create surreal and otherworldly compositions. Her collages often depict hybrid creatures, characterized by their bold use of color, pattern, and texture. Mutu’s collages use found images from magazines, books, and other printed media, as well as hand-drawn and painted elements.
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
Most audiences may not widely accept Mutu's bizarre and unique visual language. Still, it bridges different themes, creating a porous and transformative boundary where diverse themes are explored and visual language innovated. From Mutu's early collages constructed from magazine fragments to her more recent bronze mermaids, dreamy watercolors, avant-garde collages, and futuristic installations, her work spans a wide range of media.
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
Intertwined is a dedication to Mutu’s mother, Wambura Tabitha Mummy Maitu, and a connection to each other and everything that has ever existed. Figures and mythological characters, plants, social history, and folklore narratives are intertwined, and Mutu uses the most expansive imagination to explore multiple forms of creation and social issues. With eyes that don't belong to this world, slender fingers, coiled clothing, and sparkling decorations, the women created by Mutu belong to the future.
“I realized that material has its impact, its energy, its life cycle, its desire to be alive, its wish not to be dead.” — Wangechi Mutu, “Conversation with Isaac Julien and Claudia Schmuckli,” I Am Speaking, Are You Listening? 2021
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
Mutu’s art is multi-dimensional and has mythological grandeur. The dimensions of spirit and energy freely inhabit her work. She enters her being and body as a laboratory for her art, striding into threshold spaces.
Wangechi Mutu’s Intertwined is a tribute and a survey of twenty-five years of artistic genius. Mutu’s art is reborn from the ashes by deconstructing, reconstructing, forming, and reforming. For a new visual language to channel the times, Mutu traverses the prescribed threshold into a transcendent realm of imagination. The limitless possibilities await you at New Museum.
Wangechi Mutu © New Museum
