Wangechi Mutu's solo show just opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Wednesday, right after Deutsche Bank announced her as its artist of the year for 2010. All in a week's work for Mutu, who is gearing up for a lot of big shows this year (some of her work is at the Guggenheim right now too). In my Q&A with her for the National Post, we got to touch on a some of the small aspects of her large, intense works. Here's an excerpt:
Q Your art is beautiful, but can also be difficult to look at. Why is it important for you to conjure both?
A I think the fact that we can't agree on what is beautiful and ugly is one of the things my work is founded upon. I don't go out of my way to do either one or the other, and I don't see massive divisions between them. It is hard when I ask people what they find beautiful and disturbing in my work, because I don't always agree. I'm like, "You don't find this beautiful? It's beautiful to me." But the discussion of what is beautiful and what is ugly is really deep and visceral. It's also a point of contention, because we often have beauty standards that only work in one direction.
Also:
Q You appeared in Vogue magazine last year. What was that like for you, as someone who's cut these magazines apart?
A I don't believe fashion magazines are an all-encapsulating evil. But I do think fashion plays a part in the oppression of women - you see the same kind of person in them all the time, and that's a fiction I was frustrated with because there's women of so many different cultures and sizes and shapes. So I was actually very proud to be photographed as a pregnant artist who is continuing my life with a career and a family. I think it's something a lot of women don't let be known, because for most women it is hard to be taken seriously while having a family.
For those who are interested in finding out more, I recommend reading this long-form interview Mutu did with the amazing Barbara Kruger in Interview mag a couple of years ago. Seeing the show isn't a bad idea either!
(Image of Mutu's Sleeping Heads 4 of 8 from the National Post )
Friday, February 26, 2010
Fashion, War and Beauty: Q&A with Wangechi Mutu out in today's National Post
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
From Dreamscapes to Dining Rooms - Surreal Things Q&A
Earlier this year, the Victoria and Albert Museum's "Surreal Things" exhibition -- on surrealism in design -- was slated to appear at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. But according to V&A curator Ghislaine Wood, the recession has since ruled out those venues. That makes the Art Gallery of Ontario the sole North American venue for the exhibition, which opened in Toronto this weekend.
Recently, I sat down with Wood at the AGO to chat about the show. Today the National Post published our condensed interview. Here's an excerpt.
Q Dali was really into creating fantasy worlds. What do you think he and his colleagues would have made of the Internet, a place where millions of people construct elaborate fantasies on sites like Second Life?
A I think Dali would have jumped to take over the Internet and make it Dali-Land. ... I also think that audience participation in the Internet would have intrigued Dali, because the Surrealists introduced those ideas. Dali once made a jacket with glasses all over it. And what you were supposed to do was take the glasses off the jacket, fill them with creme de menthe from a bottle nearby and get drunk in front of an object, therefore having a relationship with the object that's entirely subjective and personal. Participation in art [today] is a major idea, and that was Dali in 1956.
Image of Dali's Ruby Lips from the AGO
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Return to the Spiritual: Tim Whiten at the new Art Gallery of Ontario

Back in the spring, I saw a show of Toronto artist Tim Whiten at Olga Korper Gallery. Much as I loved the ethereal quality of Whiten's work, I had concerns about whether its fragility would be treated with respect by collectors. It just has such a personally spiritual quality that is both impressive and at the same time highly dependent on a delicate web of associations within different pieces.
With that experience in mind, I approached the commission of Whiten's work for the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario with some trepidation. Would the gallery give Whiten the space and freedom he needs? For the final evaluation, I'll have to return to see the completed install; but for the time being I'm very glad they asked him to contribute his work Elysium, which I saw in a partial version last Friday.
Well before Damien Hirst began his skull-riffage, Whiten was working (back in the 80s) with actual skulls, adorning them with various treatments to striking effect. Here the skulls reappear with some long wooden staffs. My Q&A in today's National Post with Whiten offers his perspective on the deeper meaning of this work, as well as its connection to the new AGO in general. Click here to find page AL12 of the digital edition, or read on after the jump for the text.
Detail shot of Tim Whiten's Elysium courtesy of the artist; photo by Artin Aryai
ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE
National Post, Nov 13 2008 Page AL12
There are thousands of artworks to take in at the newly renovated AGO. But as a whole, what do they mean? Senior Toronto artist Tim Whiten, who installed a new work specifically for the relaunch, sees it as community — and by extension, perhaps, a kind of communion. Here, he tells Leah Sandals about the delicate art of spiritual reconstruction.
Q In your own words, how would you describe this art piece?
A This installation is called Elysium, and it’s a combination of elements that create a relationship of energies from past to present, from historic to modern understandings, from the mythic to contemporary notions of life.
Q You have a long tradition of addressing spirituality in your work, and that comes across strongly here. Why do you have this interest?
A Well, as a human race we’ve lost our contact with the spiritual concerns of life. The churches are less full than before. People aren’t committed to something that’s beyond themselves, and they’re treating each other horribly.
I think ultimately the nature of spirituality is to recognize the human community as one. And the reminder of that is part of what I’m dealing with — to say, “Hey, let’s not leave this behind; let’s get this together and keep this moving as a species.” I’m trying to give people that understanding in a way they can experience rather than as something theoretical.
Q How did you create what seem to be walking sticks?
A Those are staffs. There’s a grove of lilac bushes next to my studio that have been there for years. I’ve always had a connection to those lilacs; I like to see them flower in the spring. In many ways, they mark the seasons for me. So they seemed a good fit as a marker of moving through the cycle of life. And I used them here as that. They’re hand-whittled, very simply done.
Q And how did you create the skulls?
A Basically, we take a human skull and apply chewing gum, which is like a skin, as well as glass eyes. We proceed in layers of development mimicking the way the body is built up.
Q Are they real skulls?
A I never use plastic. I always use real materials; these were obtained in an honest way.
Q On a different note, you have, in the past, made glass versions of construction tools. Do you see everyday hardware, which has proliferated around the AGO of late, as spiritual, too?
A Tools are the way in which we can materialize things; they become the means by which we can take things from an idea into a physical reality. They’re almost a means of transcendence that way. The tools also come from a connection to my father, who was a carpenter.
Q So do you think there’s a spiritual aspect into the renovation of this building?
A Yes. One of the things that’s really important about the spiritual aspect of this building being renewed is it reconnects community. For the first time in the history of this area, the nature of this community is particularly related to the artist and the participation of art in the larger realm. That’s why I’m honoured to be a part of this; it’s a first for bringing the community together in this way.
Q Does that mean, by extension, that art galleries are like alternative churches?
A No. But galleries and museums have always been repositories for the history of culture. They bring together all the things that we are. I think there’s a real aspect of manifesting how a culture can talk to itself, relate to itself and see visions materialized. And I think that process is spiritual, even if it’s not religious per se.
Q What are you working on next?
A I’m just finishing a piece for the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, which consists of two prayer wheels done in glass with brass fittings. People can spin them, because the notion of the prayer wheel is that every time the wheel turns there’s a prayer that’s being said. It goes from a gesture of the body into mental and other levels.
Q Your work at the AGO will live alongside many other artworks. What heartens you most about seeing art today?
A The idea that it can relate directly to people’s lives, that it can really touch people. I think that’s what it’s all about. If you can’t transform someone’s life by touching them, why do it?
Tim Whiten’s work at the Art Gallery of Ontario opens to the public tomorrow. Visit ago.net for details.