The Female Prototype: Formal Analysis of Wangechi Mutu’s Tiny Split Character
The Female Prototype: Formal Analysis of Wangechi Mutu’s Tiny Split Character
As you walk up the cold, concrete steps, it looms above you, intimidating and inviting all at the same time. A wall of windows gives you an intimate peek before entering, without showing too much, heightening the anticipation. A pair of small, rotating doors, portal you into another world. The Museum of Contemporary Art’s interior is vast and simplistic, leaving a sense that the building itself is detached from the wonder it holds within its walls. Winding up the stairs and through the showrooms, the pieces almost come to life against the stark white walls. Moving through Seeing Is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, each section displays a theme more controversial, and complex then the next. Wangechi Mutu’s Tiny Split Character, is modest, even beautiful, among the many grotesque images surrounding it. Dark, deformed bodies, riddled with sexual innuendo, sometimes subtle, more often blunt, line the walls. Although Tiny Split Character, portrays the same thing, it does so gracefully, as opposed to its counterparts.
Tiny Split Character depicts the figure of a woman, distorted, in an awkward, yet seductive pose. Off to her left, a tiny figure of a woman, who is distorted as well, is suspended in mid air, head bent back, leg extended. The face of the smaller woman has a masculine feel, with an eerily large smile slapped across it. Her pose and facial expression gives the sense of freedom, an almost carefree demeanor. Armless, breasts exposed, and stiletto heels complete this misshapen representation of female sexuality. The larger woman looks at the smaller one with big, beautiful, eyes almost longingly. Perhaps the tiny woman is a representation of what, and who, the larger woman wants to be. Maybe even who she use to be, before she became a victim to the exploitation and misrepresentation of woman in society. Luscious lips are the only other human characteristic enhancing her
As you walk up the cold, concrete steps, it looms above you, intimidating and inviting all at the same time. A wall of windows gives you an intimate peek before entering, without showing too much, heightening the anticipation. A pair of small, rotating doors, portal you into another world. The Museum of Contemporary Art’s interior is vast and simplistic, leaving a sense that the building itself is detached from the wonder it holds within its walls. Winding up the stairs and through the showrooms, the pieces almost come to life against the stark white walls. Moving through Seeing Is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, each section displays a theme more controversial, and complex then the next. Wangechi Mutu’s Tiny Split Character, is modest, even beautiful, among the many grotesque images surrounding it. Dark, deformed bodies, riddled with sexual innuendo, sometimes subtle, more often blunt, line the walls. Although Tiny Split Character, portrays the same thing, it does so gracefully, as opposed to its counterparts.
Tiny Split Character depicts the figure of a woman, distorted, in an awkward, yet seductive pose. Off to her left, a tiny figure of a woman, who is distorted as well, is suspended in mid air, head bent back, leg extended. The face of the smaller woman has a masculine feel, with an eerily large smile slapped across it. Her pose and facial expression gives the sense of freedom, an almost carefree demeanor. Armless, breasts exposed, and stiletto heels complete this misshapen representation of female sexuality. The larger woman looks at the smaller one with big, beautiful, eyes almost longingly. Perhaps the tiny woman is a representation of what, and who, the larger woman wants to be. Maybe even who she use to be, before she became a victim to the exploitation and misrepresentation of woman in society. Luscious lips are the only other human characteristic enhancing her
Bibliography: Macsweeney, Eve. "A Fertile Mind" Vogue. Apr. 2009: 190. Health Reference Center Academic Roach, Jill. “Indepth Arts News”. Absolute Arts. 16 Dec. 2005. 14 April 2011