Wanja Kimani
Bridge
Wanja creates a human size barkcloth piece using her body, paint, found materials and embroidery. The piece made reflects her body and the women around her.
Using video as a form of documentation of performative works, artist Wanja Kimani operates between the personal and the political, exploring the idea of a protest within the domestic space.
From what is inherited from the past, to what I am learning now, I’m increasingly conscious of what I am choosing to express and what I continue to mask.
The work explores motherhood and how knowledge is transmitted between generations, with the body acting as this physical and metaphorical bridge
The title of the work borrows from the feminist anthology, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherrié Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldua whilst the text featured in both works borrows from Audre Lorde’s poem ‘Black Mother Woman’, reflecting on my own process of unlearning and redefinition.
Bridge, Film, 2m 46s, 2020.
5 editions + 1 AP
Bridge II, Cotton, acrylic paint and charcoal on barkcloth, 130cm x 127cm, 2020.
The work is part of the Procreate Project commission 2020 round supported by Arts Council Emergency Response funds.