Homeward Bound

For artist Wangechi Mutu, the female form is a primary source of imagery, and her work is recognized worldwide for its unique representations of beautifully exaggerated and morphed figures. Mutu's works are primarily sourced from the photo-based materials of popular magazines that the artist recontextualizes and reconfigures to create dynamic, stylized beings. Mutu's women are amalgamations, complex hybrids that speak to reclamation, empowerment and identity politics via the female form. In the contemporary portrait "Homeward Bound," a bust is created from natural and constructed elements. Winged creatures such as a bird and a moth, as well as mechanical parts, have been combined to depict a woman not contained by the world around her, but rather, composed of it.