Wangechi mutu artist interview

Wangechi Mutu has a problem with art. Or perhaps that should be a problem with the way we think about art.

Between the Earth and the Sky, Wangechi Mutu — Art21

As the Kenyan-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker and performance artist points out, “historically, most of the world’s art isn’t on a canvas, or in a frame.”

“I am very much a believer that the limitations that we've placed upon what art represents – like, ‘Art is a painting’ or ‘Art belongs in a museum’ – have a lot to do with colonization and the attempt to own things that are sacred and un-ownable” Mutu tells the art historian, Courtney J.

Martin, in Phaidon’s forthcoming Wangechi Mutu monograph. ( You can reserve a signed copy here ).

“The most dominant idea of acceptable art is the art of the European canon. Everything else is Voodoo, is lesser than, is craft, is folklore, is anthropology. Who knows who made these terms up?”

Wangechi Mutu, Ox Pecked , 2018

That remains an open question, even if, Wangechi Mutu Feminist Artist - Interview - Refinery29 LIZY