July 9, 2007

Wangechi Mutu?

I'm liking this new series better than her older colorful-splattery work. any thoughts?




5 comments:

dan said...

i love her work in general. one of the only painters that's popular right now that gets me fired up. i like the big pieces best; i think the whole porno thing becomes more insidious when its more impenetrable. in the little collages i find it too upfront. i think i'm tired of explicitness though; more often than not it makes things harder to engage with.

these collages sorta remind me of your own collages, justin, hahaha!

(i still need to DL your new mix)

Aaron Wexler said...

Her larger work is much better, much more inventive. There isnt' anything
really fantastic about these (your stuff is better).
The artist Jess made some really awesome portrait collages that are similar but about 50 years earlier.
Recently I'm a little annoyed at artists who rely so
heavily on thier ethnicity as subject matter.
Wangechi's work of a couple of years ago unfortunately fits that bill.
I guess we'll see where the work goes after she's completely assimilated in to the art world.
Back when I was dating Jena Kim (they went to yale together) we were at an opening and Wangechi said that I clean up real nice. I've been blushing around her ever since.

erin said...

i really love wangechi's work, and like dan mentioned, especially the larger works. they're just so lush and painterly and creepy.
and i totally disagree with mr. wexler's comment about ethnicity as subject matter. i really don't see how her work exploits or falls back on race, rather i see it as an integral part of her practice and not something forced or false...

dan said...

yeah, i'm with erin... i think ethnicity is always subject matter, and the difference is whether or not we take it for granted, culturally.

plus, i don't think what she's doing is particularly heavy-handed, and is approachable from a wide enough variety of angles to merit exclusion from knee-jerk reactions in general. i think there's a difference between addressing something and, let's say, banking on it-- and i'm happy to say i find her work to occupy the latter category...

(aaron you totally knew this was coming. MAYBE THIS BLOG REALLY IS THE NEW WILLOW HOUSE. where's that golden bottle of macaroni nowadays anyway?)

Aaron Wexler said...

Did you guys see her last show in NY?

Ethnicity is integral to ones work naturally.
Not every artist, but most (in this genre) I think use it as subject matter too restrictively. Sometimes it's difficult for me to get past. I'm not speaking in absolutes. But good art that does incorporate declaritive identity as subject matter is going to raise these questions... glad I could be the one to do that questioning.

Ahh the golden bottle is sitting right here... IN MY LAP.