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Social Sharing
Outstretched
Not on view
An artist who calls both Nairobi and New York City home, Wangechi Mutu moves voraciously between cultural traditions to challenge colonialist, racist and sexist worldviews with her speculative projection of an alternate universe informed by feminism, Afrofuturism and the Symbiocene. Outstretched cites the classic trope of the reclining nude, whose passivity has dominated the representation of women in art for centuries. However, Outstretched resists such characterisation. Her face and hands are covered with bundles of black and red feathers, a colour scheme that evokes violent acts and conjures images of abuse and mutilation. Wearing her amphibian skin and vaginal-shaped shield like a protective cover, Outstretched refutes the association of nakedness with nudity, thus valiantly defying the indignity and injury of female objectification.
- Artist
- Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972)
- Title
- Outstretched
- Date
- 2019
- Object Type
- Sculpture
- Medium
- Soil, paper pulp and feathers
- Dimensions
- 91.1 x 161.9 x 74.9 cm (35 7/8 x 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Jay D. & Clare C. McEvoy Endowment Income Fund
- Accession Number
- 2021.32