Sandra Mujinga’s multidisciplinary practice is driven by a profound interest in the body – and its absence. In her uncanny installations, ghostly hooded figures, sculptures resembling flayed skins, and fantastical hybrid creatures are made instruments of observation. Taking inspiration from animal survival strategies such as camouflage and nocturnality, science fiction’s concept of “world-building,” posthumanist thought, and Afro-futurism, Mujinga proposes an imaginary world where cyborg existence does not necessarily signal a threat to autonomy; rather, hybridity functions as protection. Mujinga’s 2019 quartet of sculptures Mókó, Libwá, Zómi, and Nkáma are bodies without insides. Presented in an installation vibrating with neon green light, these larger-than-life hooded figures, titled in the Bantu language Lingala, are comprised of human-shaped cloaks with textile limbs that evoke tentacles and trunks; humanoid beings that have evolved to meet the reality of our catastrophic era. In the 2020 tulle sculptures Míbalé, Mísatóxi, Mínei, and Mítáno, futuristic representations of bodies likewise loom above viewers. These long-armed figures stand watch, their animalistic forms a symbol of self-sufficiency. The sculptures in Reworlding Remains (2021) and Sentinels of Change (2021), woven from upcycled textiles, take inspiration from dinosaur fossils. These sculptures are positioned in a liminal space, in which decay and rebuilding exist on the same timeline.
Madeline Weisburg
