Water Woman is a stylized, black bronze sculpture of a nguva, a water-woman of East African folklore that blends human characteristics with those of the dugong, an endangered relative of the manatee. The artist has said the nguva represents a "bewitching female aquatic being with powers to entrance and drown susceptible mortals." In contrast to the ubiquitous Western iconography rooted in Hellenic, Nordic, and Anglo-Saxon depictions of silken-haired women with pale skin, here the siren is represented by the luminous, charcoal colored female body, which is a vein if inquiry central to Mutu's work.
Source: News, January Febraury March, 2018.
Overall: 400 lb. (181.4 kg.)
Images (1)
Audio (1)
Wangechi Mutu (Kenyan, active United States, born 1972)
Water Woman, 2017
Run Time: 3:02
This audio content was created by Wangechi Mutu and recorded by her daughter, Wathira Lazzaroni.
The Water Woman is a sculpture that was created by Wangechi Mutu. Wangechi is an artist who grew up in Nairobi. She has made many works about strong women and mythological characters who she believes are women. The Water Woman was an idea Wangechi had thought about for many years because she loved swimming and loved the sea and the animals and plants that live within it.
When she was in her late teens, Wangechi went to work at a museum on a small island named Lamu, where different coastal cultures had lived together for centuries. She swam in the Indian Ocean every day. There for the first time in her life, she heard about sea-spirits, water-women, and mythological creatures. Wangechi discovered that the people of Lamu had many stories about all types of creatures and their enchanting powers.
When Wangechi left for the United States, the stories and memories of her coastal life followed her. One day from her New York studio, she decided to do some research about them. She found the Kiswahili name Nguva. The Nguva is an animal that is found on the coast of East Africa in the ocean and is known as a dugong; a very friendly, and fleshy, kind of sea cow, some-what like a manatee. Dugong’s are often in danger because of how close they swim to boats and to the shore. Today a sighting of a Nguva is rare and it is not to be hunted or eaten when caught. The story goes these animals are also Water-women and that they are irresistible to sailors if ever they catch and slaughter them for their delicious meat.
After much research, Wangechi realized that she still didn’t know what the sea-women even looked like. There were stories about them, but no pictures. She began imagining the mythological Nguva, through drawings and paintings. At some point she made a small clay sculpture of a Water Woman. Later, she made chocolate ones, because she liked the story of fisherman who had to confess that they had eaten a dugong’s flesh. Finally, she came up with what a Nguva might look like, she had a face with a fearless expression, webbed hands, and a long mighty tail for swimming across the ocean, and ebony skin—perfect under sun and water.
Wangechi decided to call her simply, Water Woman.
