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queerlyhypersensitive:

Wangechi Mutu’s “Yo Mama”

“Some of these figures stand for certain ideals and hopes that I feel are necessary to tackle shared challenges that stand in the way of ‘our’ humanity, cultural understanding and coexistance.  So for example, the figure in ‘Yo Mama’ is this fierce, fictional planet-hopping warrior who is obviously traversing different histories and lands annihilating the huge serpent (as in the biblical snake, the phallus, a symbol of Christian patriarchy) with her heel.  I try to express elements of female bravado and raise questions about ethnic identification whilst creating a mythological/futuristic character that confronts the lengthy history of these shared dilemmas.  The stilettos appear often in my work, especially the collages.  I have contradictory reasons for using them — they’re weapons, prosthetics, embellishments, armor, and obviously, titillating power symbols.  High heels are the quintessential heightening apparatus that constrains and deforms the body whilst functioning as an indicator of modernity, urbanization and ‘foreign’ ideals of beauty.”

(via naijaboi)