Wangechi Mutu: The End of Carrying It All

Wangechi Mutu, born 22 June 1972 in Kenya, is an artist and sculptor living in Brooklyn, NY.   Considered to be one of the most important contemporary African artists, much of her work has been concerned with the myriad forms of violence and misrepresentation visited upon women, especially black women, in the contemporary world.  Mutu came to art as a second career.  At first she went to England and studied anthropology, which influenced her art in several ways, causing her to think in terms of the ways human relationships rest within the larger social structures and to the ways Europeans and Americans thought about Africans and African artistic expression.  Born in Nairobi, her upbringing was a modern and urban one, and she was puzzled by the Western tendency to think of Africa in terms of its rural, traditional cultures. "There's this constant movement toward historicizing Africa, turning it into this archaic place," she explained, "Being that I was raised there, and that I came from the city, it was really weird for me. I was like, 'It's actually a really modern place like everywhere else. It happened and is happening right now.'"  

While Mutu employs a variety of mediums including video, installation, and sculpture, she is best known for her large-scale collages on pieces of Mylar.  Her works often make the female body central, and confront the viewer with "plant-like or animal-like elements and intertwined abstract patterns" that merge the organic and the surreal with human forms.  These hybrid creatures have bodies made of a combination of machine, animal, human and monster parts.  She constructs figures out of magazine cutouts, sculpted and painted surfaces, and found materials. The sources her collage images range from a variety of media, including commercial fashion, lifestyle, pornography, and automobile, and motorcycle magazines. These distorted but elegant figures that she creates are based on her observation that, "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.  Her work has been called "Afrofuturist," an aesthetic that uses the imagination of science fiction to envision alternate realities for Africa and people of African descent.

Projected on a three panel screen in the background was her video The End of Carrying It All.  I have been unable to find it online, probably because it is in three separate panels.  There is another video called On the End of Eating Everything.

 on vimeo, On the End of Eating Everything, which merges her collage with video.  Graphically the two are very different but the themes are similar.  For a nice description of the exhibition including more photography visit iam-africa.  There are numerous interviews with the artist on line, below are some I found interesting.

  

All these images with the hair in braids made me think of calamari.  Calamari can be cooked briefly, think frito, or long simmered.  A classic long simmered stew such as Spezzatino di Calamari con Piselli, Calamari stew with peas, has a richer sea flavor that Venetians prefer.  This dish while not specifically Venetian is popular all down the Adriatic coast.

This is a meal in a bowl, start with some antipasto, have lots of good bread for sopping  up the sauce, and finish with fruit for dessert.  For something to drink there lots of options from a Valpolicella or Bardolino to a crisp white from the Veneto.

For two servings you'll need a half kilo of calamari, you can use pre cleaned tubes but you'll loose the connection to Wangechi Mutu's art without the tentacles.  One inner rib of celery, minced, just a bit more minced onion or scallion than the celery, a couple of cloves of garlic, pealed and cut in half lengthwise, one dry red chile, a couple tablespoons of olive oil, 1/4 cup of dry white wine, several tomatoes pealed, seeded and diced, a cup of tomato sauce (or more tomatoes), an anchovy fillet minced, minced parsley, and a cup or so of peas, frozen work fine here.  Start by frying the chile and garlic in oil until the garlic is nicely browned then discard the chile and garlic and add the onion, celery, and anchovy to the flavored oil.  After a couple of minutes add the wine and cook until it evaporates, then add the tomatoes, tomato sauce and squid.  Simmer covered for at least a half hour to 45 minutes.  Add the parsley and peas and cook ten minutes more.