Family Tree 2012

Wangechi Mutu’s “Family Tree” feels like a living organism, one painstakingly pieced together, cell by cell, from glossy magazine fragments. I imagine Mutu, in her studio, surrounded by stacks of fashion mags and medical journals, teasing out these bizarre juxtapositions. There’s a surreal quality to the work. Hands sprouting from… fish heads? Limbs morphing into mechanical parts? It's unsettling and alluring, like a dream you can’t quite shake off. The female figure takes centre stage, her body a site of constant reinvention. The textures clash – smooth skin against rough metal. Each element seems to challenge the one next to it, like thoughts in your head. Mutu's collages feel like a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas, dreams, and nightmares across time, inspiring not only me, but so many other artists to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty.