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Wangechi Mutu
Perverse Anthropology: The Photomontage of Wangechi Mutu
A Conversation with Lauri Firstenberg

In her most recent series of works on paper, "Figures" (2003), Wangechi Mutu articu-
lates mutilated flesh by manipulating ruddy mud and plaster to describe hybrid hu-
manoid creatures. Appearing to invade the page spontaneously, these forms are ac-
tually the stylized products of a controlled compositional process that begins with
elements of collage and is completed by the artist's hand in sumi ink and acrylic. Fan-
tastical and flagrantly vulgar, Mutu's brand of montage accentuates the incongruous
relationship between face and figure. Culling sexual imagery from fashion and porn,
from ethnographic photographs in National Geographic and high-gloss populist cof-
fee table books such as Africa Adorned, the "Figures" series deconstructs the female
body until it becomes a series of leprous dismembered pinups (Figs. 69, 70, 72, 77).
The figures produced by these acts of ferocity are grotesque yet precious, atrocious
yet aestheticized. Pantene-treated and blown-out hair is cut out and positioned as
horse tail. An abstract body, muddied and burned, is punctuated by a peg leg. A
screaming mouth is mismatched with two disparate appropriated eyes. These corpo-
real ruptures are highly exaggerated, equating the found female form with construct
and artifice.
The work signals Hannah Hbch's series "From an Ethnographic Museum;' and par-
ticularly Strange Beauty (1929), an undeniable point of departure for Mutu's pho-
tomontages and for her fascination with the absurd and the abject. Hbch's white odal-
isque, topped by what may be a shrunken head, or an anonymous tribal-figure
Fig. 68 Pin-Up. 2001. by Wangech, Mutu. Mixed media on
paper. 33 x 25.4 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.

Fig. 69 Figures', 2003. by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media

on mylar, 56 x 43 cm. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.

Fig. 70 Figures'. 2003. by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media

on mylar, 107 x 81 cm. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and
Susanne V,elmetter Los Angeles Projects.

Cat. 24 a Machinehead from the Fungus series, by

Wangechi Mutu. Ink, acrylic and collage on mylar, 43 x 28
cm. Commissioned by the Museum for African Art,
Courtesy of the artisl and Susanne Vielmetter Los
Angeles Projects.

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 Cal. 24 b Fungus, 2003, by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media
on mylar, 89 x 61 em. Commissioned by the Museum for
African Art, Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetler
Los A ngeles PrOJects.

Cal. 24 c Fungus, 2003, by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media

on mylar, 92 x 61 em. Commissioned by the Museum for
Afr ican Art, Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vrelmetter
Los Angeles Projec ts.

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Fig. 71 Creatures , 2002, by
Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media on
mylar, 41 x 30.5 cm. Courtesy of
Susanne Vielmelter Los Angeles
Projects.

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 Fig. 72 Figures ', 2002, by Wan gechi Mutu. Ink, acryl,c and
collag e on paper, B 1 x 107 em. Collection of Rebecca and
Alexander Stuart. Photo: Courtesy of the artis t.

fragment, is further exaggerated by the superimposition of displaced eyes and magni-

fied lens, which accentuate the incongruity of its construction.' The formal compar-
isons with Mutu's art are uncanny, yet it is dangerous to read the work as a simplistic
inversion of its historical precedent. In any case, Mutu replaces Hbch's surrogate for
the other by replacing the ethnographic artifact with concrete black figural features-
or perhaps it is the emblems of whiteness in Mutu's constructions that are the tokens
of difference here.
Fi g. 73 Classic Profile, 2002 -2003, by Wang echi Mutu.
Mutu's "Classic Profile" series (2002) has been described as a subversion of por- Mixed media on rr ,:~:, 56 x 4~ em. Collection of Stu rt
traiture. 2 Rehearsing a kind of visual anthropology, it excavates the Western imaginary Roberts, NY. Photo: Courk:;y of Ihe artlsL

by using media imagery to produce a stylized, automatonlike figuration victimized by
various cultural contaminations (Figs. 73-76) . The "Creatures" series (2003) shifts away
from the logic of the pinup to make selections from travel and wild-life publications, unit-
ing contradictory elements to form a bizarre body that is at once balanced and excessive
(Figs. 71, 78, 79). Disparate features are not so much juxtaposed as sutured together,
not seamlessly but dissonantly-perhaps a metaphor for cross-cultural fusion and fric-
tion. Out-of-proportion body parts are amalgamated and made monstrous. A saintlike
figure posed in romance-novel ecstasy props herself up with sturdy flexed hands taken
Fig. 74 Classic Profile, 2002-03, by Wangechi Mu u. Mixed
medIa on mylar, 56 x 43 em. Courtesy of he artIst and
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
F'g . 75 Alien from the Classic Profile series, 2002, by
Wang echl Mutu. Mixed media on paper, 30 x 25 c .
Collection of Stu art Roberts, NY. Pho 0 : Jerry L Thompson.
Fig. 76 Classic Profile, 2002-03, by Wangechl Mutu. Mixed
media on myI r, 56 x 43 em. Courtesy of the artist and S -
sanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.

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from pornographic imagery. Such compressions of female iconographic genres pro-
•
•
••••
.
duce a warped cosmology of woman as mad muse, aggravated by Mutu's disjunctive
••••••••
shifts between drawn and appropriated features: jeweled claw, detached breast, de-
...
•• :. I ...
. .......•
.~
•• ~

.••••
composing skin, conical coiffure. In this way Mutu abstracts and amplifies stereotype. • ••
Her acts of sampling and reconfiguration dupe categorical representations of femininity
and ethnicity to investigate a kind of quasi-deconstructed exotic lexicon wherein cos-
.'...• "

.
I • ... :- •••
• A'

• 01
mopolitanism meets anachronism. These images do not defeat the erotic, however; they
perform within the language of hegemony, borrowing canonical visual tropes to co-opt,
alter, amputate, and confound. Mutu plays on intersecting tropes of femininity, incorpo-
rating floral patterns and other ornamental elements in what she describes as a meeting
of mutilation and decoration. This lexicon of appropriation emphasizes artifice in relation
to the body.
Lauri Firstenberg: How do you think your work sits within a larger art-historical tra-
jectory of figurative col/age? How does it negotiate both precursors and contempo-
raries working a similar vein, such as Romare Bearden, Hannah Hoch, Fatimah Tug- Fig. 77 Figures'. 2003, by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed media
gar, and Candice Breitz? on myl ar, 56 x 43 cm. Cou rtesy of the arti st and Susanne
V,elmelter Los Angeles Projects.
Wangechi Mutu: Artists like Claude Cahun, Katherine Dunham, Coco Fusco, and
even Hussein Chalayan fascinate me. With Cahun there's a real sense of personal
narrative; she was able to tackle social critique with drama, she portrayed melancholy
and spirituality using poetry and performance, and her use of materials was wild and
uninhibited. I've always been interested in artists who work with transformation,
masks, and disguise-I value their practices for being somehow schizophrenic, con-
tradictory, and emotional. Camouflage and mutation are big themes in my work, but
the idea I'm most enamored with is the notion that transformation can help us to tran-
scend our predicament. We all wear costumes when we set out for battle. The lan-
guage of body alteration is a powerful inspiration. I think part of my interest in this
comes from being an immigrant, but I've also always been interested in how people
perform and maneuver among one another.
Of the artists you mentioni I identify most with Bearden, his work strikes me as the
least reactionary. To use photocollage in the time of jazz and the Harlem Renaissance
was really so powerful and soulful: here was this medium, photography, that was be-
Fig. 78 Intertwined from the Creatures series, 2002, by
ing used to define and document reality, to encapsulate truth and time, and Bearden Wangechl Mutu. Mixed media on mylar, 41 x 30.5 cm.
used it to disrupt its own integrity and create visually stunning narratives of black lives Courtesy of the Arl '" and Susanne VielmeHer Los
Angeles Projects. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.
and dreams. Also, some of his images use abstraction in ways I've seen in Southern
and Central African sculpture-sculpture from the Congo, Makonde art from Mozam-
bique. Bodies are attached onto other bodies, creating a latticework of limbs, expres-
sions, and narrative. I rely on that method in my work.
I do admire Hoch's work and simple process. I can tell that she rummaged madly
through books and magazines. But the idea of clear-cut binaries-African/European,
archaic/modern, and religion/pornography-I've never really believed in that. I'm inter-
ested in powerful images that strike chords embedded deep in the reservoirs of our
subconscious. I'm not really using collage to critique photography, advertising, or
ethnographic photography per se.
Kenya is a very photogenic country, and so much faux anthropology and documentary
work has been carried out there. When you live in such a country it's easy to dismiss
the role it plays in forming your identity. But after you live outside it for a long time, you
realize that the big animals that inhabit the not-so-wild wilderness, a few indigenous
locals, and sometimes a marathon runner or two are not a sufficient definition of your Fig. 79 The Hunt fro m the Creatures series, 2002, by
Wangechi Mutu. Ink, acrylic, collage on paper,
homeland. Besides addressing and even challenging an art-historical trajectory of fig-
41 x 30.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Jerry
urative-photographic collage, my work is a reclaiming of an imagined future. Collages, L. Thompson.

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 Fi g. 80 Pin· Up , 200 1, by Wangechi Mutu . Mixed med ia on
paper, 33 x 25.4 cm, Couri esy o f the arilst.

assemblage, and mixing genres are merely tools to facilitate the rewriting of my mem- Fig, 8 1 S oul on a Peg Leg, 200 1, by Wangechl Mulu. Ink,
ories and history. collage, and mixed media on paper, 152 x 1 12 cm,
Courtesy of th e arils t.
LF: There has been quite a lot of talk recently about "Afro-futurism, " an idea that
frames contemporary black artistic production around the cultural models of futurism Fig. 82 The Empire 's Tail from the Pin Up /I series, 200 1,
by Wan gechi Mutu. Watercolor and collage on paper,
and science fiction . What is your take on this visual and cultural conceptual frame-
33 x 25.4 cm. Collecti on of the ariist. Photo: Jerry
work, and do you read your work within it? L. Thompson.
WM : Afro-futurism has become such a charged and hot idea recently. Maybe it's be-
cause the idea of "Africa and the future" is seen as an oxymoron. I've never been afraid
of extermination as such; I think being raised in a majority-black nation has a lot to do
with that. But I have to admit that being transplanted changes your notions of self and
survival. I'm sure the more extreme your migration story is, the more complicated do
issues of personal and cultural survival become for you. Displacement anxiety and a
fractured identity are implied in my drawings; there are mutilations and awkward at-
tachments in the collage work. I think one of my most poignant moments in my late
teens was realizing that my father's generation was this group of men who 'd been
raised to understand the true traditional value of a large herd of cattle and goats, yet
they were expected to mutate and become middle-class, Mercedes-owning, intellec-
tually rigorous, three-piece-suit-wearing urbanites.
LF: Your treatment of the body is aestheticizing yet violent. Are you worried about the
possibility of sustaining rather than resignifying models of black subjectivity?
WM: Violent incidences are often fastened to images of privilege in my drawings. Im-
ages of altered or slightly mutilated bodies with diseased skin sometimes looks like
bizarre and colorful fabric costumes . There is this tiny percentage of people who live
like emperors because elsewhere blood is being shed . Women 's bodies are particu -
larly vulnerable to the whims of changing movements, governments, and soc ial norms.
They're like sensitive charts-they indicate how a society feels about itself. It's also dis-
turbing how women attack themselves in search of a perfect image, and to assuage
the imperfections that surround them.
LF: Do you see your work as revisualizing stereotypes?
WM: I'm fascinated by stereotypes . We become like deer in the headlights when

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 Fig. 83 Untitled, 1997, by Wangecl:. Mutu. Mixed media
sculpture, 43 x 14.6 x 8.25 cm. Co"eclior of the ar"·
Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

Fig. 84a-c Untitled. 1997, by Wangechi Mutu. Mixed me-

dia sculpture, dimensions vary. (Left and lTiiddle) Collec-
tion of Danny Simmons, NY. (Right) Colleclion of the
artisl Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

we're exposed to them. I don't believe attacking stereotypes head-on is an effective

solution-they seem to get more power from this type of attention. I'm fascinated by
how we come to a collective consensus as to what a stereotype is, and, even further,
on how to use it against one another. So few things are really what they're rumored to
be, and yet we use them to form opinions constantly. "Civilized behavior," "primitive
art," "democratic nations"-they're all volatile and nebulous definitions. I suppose you
could say that I mine stereotypes for their weak foundations and produce figures that
are distillations of my own issues, beliefs, perceptions, and personal stereotypes.
LF: What is the relationship between your sculptural practice and your work on pa-
per? 00 you view your sculpture as a shift from your former production, or do you
view your present work as "built drawings?"
WM: When I first came to New York I was studying anthropology and cultural studies
together with fine art. I was fascinated with archaeological and anthropological arti-
facts, and with the way they're used to read a people's entire history and culture.
Every critique I had in class always came back to the idea that I was from the African
continent, so I quite irreverently began to make a lot of small, fake, old-dug-up-Iooking
"African" objects. I used bottles, feathers, tar, and old umbrellas that I had around. I al-
so made huge wearable sculptures that looked like traditional jewelry, and pho-
tographed them in dramatic light with backdrops resembling ethnographic photo-
graphs I'd seen. (Figs. 83, 84 a-c) This cheekiness, fact-juggling, combined with my
love of assemblage, have remained in the work, and still come through in the collage
drawings and wall pieces that I do now.

1. Maud Lavin, "The Mess of History or the Unclean Hannah Hiich;' in Catherine de Zegher, ed., Inside the Visible: An
Elliptical Traverse 01 Twentieth Century Art in, 01, and lrom the Feminine (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1996),
p.122.
2. See Aida Mashaka Croal, "Subversive, Absurdist and Beautiful;' Alricana, March 5, 2003.

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