WANGECHI MUTU
When sleeping heads lie
November 10 - December 23, 2006
Power House Memphis is delighted to announce its solo exhibition of works by Wangechi Mutu her first exhibition in Tennessee. Born in Kenya the artist currently lives and works in New York.
Wangechi Mutu uses collage and assemblage and the idea of dissecting, cutting and mutilating as a metaphor for fragmented personal experience and the shifting concepts of global identity. Her drawings and paintings on Mylar have been included in shows such as, Looking Both Ways originally shown at the Museum of African Art, 'She's Come Undone' at Greenberg Von Doren gallery in New York, her video, 'Cutting' shown at the Michael Stevenson gallery in Cape Town South Africa.
Wangechi Mutu's collage process mimics amputation, transplant operations and forced mythical prosthetics. Her figures become parody mutilations, their forms grotesquely marred through perverse modification, echoing historical and personal atrocities. Her 'Backlash Blues' work on Mylar and Medical illustrations made on century old Victorian illustrations were shown last month in the notorious Charles Saatchi's USA Today show at the Royal Art Academy in London.
Mutu's installations are also another device through which mystery, social ills, the female body and the Art institution are explored and carved into. Her 'Hanging in Texas’ work featuring her weeping red-wine bottles and wounded walls were the derivation of works like 'The Masters imaginary dual is over' at Seville Biennial Spain curated by Okwui Enwezor, and the exhibition 'Fight or Flight' curated by Shamim Momin at the Whitney Museum Altria branch.
Artist Statement
Sleep is delightful, intoxicating, it nourishes both mind and body. It can capture you unaware: mid thought or mid action when you need most to be alert. Sleep is mysterious and often follows sweet and unholy actions that permit us to feel most divine and fulfilled. But sleep is a master not a lamb and it softens our resistance and kills our nerves, hides our attention and convolutes reality. When debauchery and chaos have taken over our lives and our land, sleep is second incommand. Sleep is better than death. What good are corpses for labor and why bother force-feeding cadavers propaganda? So sleep well, sleep long, sleep sweetly..
Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins and Co.