Family Tree 2012

Wangechi Mutu made this collage piece, and the way she throws together different images is a real testament to artmaking as a process. It’s all about the journey, right? The material aspect of this work is what really grabs me. All these cut-out images, with their varied textures and colors, assembled into something so strange and compelling. Take the figure’s head, it’s like a mask or a smooth stone. Then there are these hands, one with rings, the other with claws, and I keep wondering how these parts all add up to the whole. It reminds me a bit of Hannah Höch and her photomontages, where she threw together images to disrupt and make us see things anew. With this piece, Mutu is encouraging us to look beyond the surface, to find our own way of seeing and experiencing the world.