Wangechi Mutu, Poems by my Great-Grandmother

Narrator: One of the three sculptures by Wangechi Mutu in the 2019 Biennial is abstract. Wangechi Mutu.

Wangechi Mutu: It's called Poems by my Great-Grandmother, and it's a kinetic piece.

Narrator: The work began with some roots that a neighbor gave to the artist. Mutu has attached a pencil to that root.

Wangechi Mutu: And this pencil draws a circle on a big, big, big aluminum pot, or aluminium pot as we say in British English. And that circle for me is this mysterious poem that I will never understand. But it's got the most beautiful sound, and it's quite a mesmerizing activity to watch. And so, I wanted to tie in the idea of art as kind of oral literature, and art from a traditional space as being completely different kind of form.

And also being something that is hard to capture . . . A lot of the culture actually has disappeared with older people who have died, or have been killed, or who have not survived modernity. So one of the things about being in a colonized space is coming to terms with the alienation you feel from not having a connection to the past. And that bridge that I'm always trying to create is sort of this ghost bridge to a place I don't actually know, because I never met my great-grandmother.