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Preying MantraPreying Mantra © Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels

Preying Mantra

Wangechi Mutu. 2006 C.E. Mixed media on Mylar

Curator Note

"A collage depicting a female creature—half human, half cyborg/animal—reclining on a patterned blanket. Mutu, a Kenyan-born artist, cuts up images from fashion magazines, pornography, and medical textbooks to critique the colonial and male gaze upon the black female body. The figure is both alluring and dangerous, a "preying mantis" ready to strike."

Form

  • Collage drawing on sheets of Mylar (polyester film).
  • Mixed media: ink, acrylic, glitter, magazine cutouts.
  • The Mylar surface is smooth and synthetic, unlike traditional paper.
  • The figure is a composite: distorted proportions, mechanic and organic parts.
  • Warm, earthy background colors (Kuba cloth patterns) contrast with the sleek figure.

Function

  • To challenge stereotypes of the African female body (hyper-sexualized yet exotic).
  • To explore the concept of the hybrid or "cyborg" identity.
  • To critique the fashion and beauty industry's standards.
  • To reclaim the power of the female figure as dangerous, not just passive.
  • To weave together Western consumerism and African mythology.

Content

  • Title "Preying Mantra": pun on "Praying Mantis" (sexual cannibal) and "Mantra" (chant).
  • The figure: a femme fatale, looking directly at the viewer.
  • The snake in hand: biblical reference to Eve/temptation.
  • Kuba cloth patterns: reference to traditional African fabric.
  • Green skin/mechanic parts: suggests sci-fi or alien nature.

Context

  • Mutu creates purely African characters in a sci-fi future (Afrofuturism).
  • Collage as a medium mimics the "violence" of colonization (cutting/pasting cultures).
  • Responds to the history of ethnographic photography.
  • Themes of migration, exoticism, and the female monster.
  • Global Contemporary: mixing sources from high and low culture across continents.