My Mother’s Memories, a Mound of Buried Brides (2023)

Overview

Interweaving African traditions, historical references, layered symbolism, fashion, ecology and science fiction, Wangechi Mutu situates her practice at a crossroads between Afrofuturism and feminism. Her new sculptural installation, My Mother’s Memories, a Mound of Buried Brides (2023), reflects on the resilience of the women who fought in the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Excavating fragmented and long unspoken recollections of her mother’s harrowing experiences, these sculptures simultaneously recall the grotesque reign of terror and corresponding trauma inflicted by the British army, as well as the surviving population’s struggle for freedom and self-determination.