Mwangi Hutter. Aesthetic of Uprising II, 2011. Courtesy of the artist.

2011. Print on roll, 157 x 78 inches, paint, cleaning rags with text. Courtesy of Mwangi Hutter

A large photo print depicts a muddy, almost-naked female figure running on all fours over dry, cracked ground. The shape can be identified as the lower part of the African continent, set on black.  The print is suspended from a roll and extends onto the floor.  There, it merges with a river-like puddle of black liquid paint, the outward flow of which has been constrained by several cleaning rags. Fragments of text, written and overwritten on the rags, speak of the need to set out on a journey, as turmoil and chaos have broken loose in a place that remains unnamed.  In the course of time the paint dries and begins to crack.

Mwangi Hutter regard their work as a unit arising from two bodies, two minds, dual histories and the continuous merging of expression. Working in performance, video, digital photography and installation, they are developing a body of work that focuses on human experience, using themselves as the sounding board for exploring modes of self-knowledge and relationality, social conventions and social justice.  Born 1975 in a place they call Nairobi Ludwigshafen, Mwangi Hutter live and work in Ludwigshafen and Berlin, Germany and in Nairobi, Kenya.