It shows a woman played by Mutu walking into the waves. I felt deep sadness and became obsessed with Rwandan genocide, which I felt had a lot to do with borders and confining or defining people through colonization and eugenics.'Īround the same time, Mutu created the video 'Amazing Grace,' an homage to the power of the ocean, which brought forth life but also destroyed so many through the slave trade and migrant boats. In the exhibition catalog, Mutu adds: 'I wanted to find a way to resolve and understand what was happening to me and other people who come to the United States and who cross borders. Norton explains that Mutu first created such a wall in 2004 to express her frustration while waiting to become an American citizen. When creating these works, she was focused on the Rwandan genocide.Ī nearby wall is gouged with red tinged markings so it resembles diseased or battered skin. Photo: Dario Lasagni This installation is part of the 'Sleeping Heads,' hung on a wall that Mutu has gouged with red tinted holes, representing her frustration with institutions. 'Her interest in hybridity, animal life, biological life, microbial life - it's striking to see the work together.'Ĭourtesy New Museum. 'She returns and circles back to things,' says curator Vivian Crockett, who curated the show with Norton. The image - inspired by a photograph from National Geographic of two dogs fighting over a scrap of meat - places the animal heads on two women's bodies, who pose like a pair of fashion models, highlighting themes that Mutu has addressed repeatedly throughout her career, such as transmutation and sexuality. The show's title takes its name from a collage that Mutu created in 2003. It's a dichotomy that is explored in the exhibition 'Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined,' open through June 4 and featuring more than 100 of her works created over a span of 25 years, spread across multiple floors. Born in Kenya in 1972, Mutu moved to New York in the 1990s and now splits her time between studios in Brooklyn and Nairobi. 'She has talked about having multiple roots,' says Margot Norton, the museum's Allen and Lola Golding senior curator.

Photo: Dario Lasagni The shape of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' reminds curator Margot Norton of mangrove plants with their twisted roots.

For whom the bell tolls 1st edition