User:H.barker25/Wangechi Mutu

Femineity

Feminine themes are expressed across Wangechi Mutu's body of work. The majority of her artwork highlights a female character, whether it is in Mutu’s collages, sculptures, photography, or performances.

A handful of Mutu's works highlight the female figure and feminine features. Using references of a black woman's body, Mutu tends to use the silhouette or actual photographic imagery of a woman to create the characters in her works. A series of artworks that reflect the use of the female silhouette and elements of photographic images of black females is “The Ark Collection” from 2006. One of the artworks in this collection, titled “Highland Woman,” shows a photographic image of a female body meshed with various college elements, helping create a scene as well as create the rest of the silhouette of a female figure, highlighting the photographic elements of a woman's nude breasts. The rest of these works have been discussed as using the female form to create “figurations of black women's corporeality in visual culture”. She also places a lot of emphasis on body language and how the woman is situated within the work.

Another feminine aspect that Mutu draws from is the idea of feminine power. She draws these ideas in her “The Seated series.” In an interview, Mutu claimed her artwork is inspired by “caryatids throughout history,” in which she references things such as “in Greek architecture you see these women in their beautiful robes, and then in African sculpture across the continent you see these women wither kneeling or sitting, sometimes holding a child, as well as holding up the seat of the king.” She wanted to showcase the African American women form in a way that is active but puts the black woman on the pedestal rather than being on the pedestal in past historical representations. She takes the black female experience into account in her pieces through her inspiration from female forms that showcase power in art history.