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| Yosiry Beltre, An Angel's Smile, 2024 |
Wangechi Mutu Dresses Cultural Critique in Freakishly Beautiful Disguises
Quote 1: "The work is a perfect melding of two of Mutu’s concerns: stereotypical depictions of exoticized African women and of hyper-sexualized African-American women. Eschewing paint and other embellishments, each work is pure collage, combining images from black porn magazines with postcards that reproduce photographs taken by Carol Beckwith, who, beginning in the 1970s, documented tribal ceremonies in Kenya and Tanzania."
Response: In the modern day those ideas of black women's representation are still as archaic as the artist presents. Black women being viewed as either "uneducated" or sex objects is such a problem because not only does it come from outside but also inside the community. It could be as subtle as memes about "baby mama drama" or as obscene as seeing music videos of mostly black women half-naked and gyrating for the audience/artist.
Quote 2: "Because of her figures’ ultimate otherworldly manifestations, it was most surprising to see that they begin as rather classical drawings before they are reworked, manipulated, amputated, ornamented and otherwise transformed."
Response: I would've never guessed that the drawings were your typical pen-on-paper art because of how far they stray from the final product, which is a good thing. It's important to make sure the final product isn't the same as a rough draft.
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