Wangechi Mutu
She's got the whole world in her

She's got the whole world in her

© 2015 Wangechi Mutu

She's got the whole world in her
She's got the whole world in her
ArtistKenyan, born 1972
CultureKenyan
Titles
  • She's got the whole world in her
Date2015
MediumMannequin, wood, horn, paper maché, wax, disco ball, and found objects
Dimensions108 × 60 × 42 in. (274.3 × 152.4 × 106.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
Object number2016.79
Not on view

Explore Further

Object Type
Description

Wangechi
Mutu first presented the collage, sculpture, and video that make up A Trinity
at the 56th Venice
Biennale in 2015. Encompassing Mutu’s ongoing exploration of Western, African,
and feminist identities, this suite also testifies to the artist’s passionate
concern for the global environment.



Each
work focuses on a different aspect of womanhood. Forbidden
Fruit picker
is dominated by a modern-day Eve, reaching up for an apple as two snakes twist and hiss. She’s got the
whole world in her
portrays a sphinxlike matriarch contemplating a hanging globe,
burnt black and wasted, while her basket-like skirt shelters an array of
figures and animals. Mutu herself acts as the protagonist of
The End of carrying
All
. The video traces her pr
ogress across the savannah; as
twilight falls, the basket becomes increasingly filled with consumer goods and
industrial structures: a bicycle wheel, a satellite dish, a tower, and an oil
rig. Eventually, the burden becomes too much to bear, and the woman buckles and
melts under the strain, consumed and ultimately becoming one with nature. A
volcanic eruption ripples through the earth, all is quiet, and then the journey
begins once again.




ProvenanceThe artist; [Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2015]; purchased by MFAH, 2016.
Exhibition History"All The World’s Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition," Venice Biennale, May 9–November 22, 2015.

"On Common Ground," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 21, 2017–January 14, 2018.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Forbidden Fruit picker
Wangechi Mutu
2015
Photo montage from printed sources, collage, spray paint, and cut fabric with ink on Mylar and paper board
2016.81
Museum
Thornton Dial, Sr.
1998
Paper, found textiles, found objects, Plexiglas, and paint over metal and wood armature
2003.695
The End of carrying All
Wangechi Mutu
2015
Three-channel video, edition 1/3
2016.80
"Bull" Bracelet
Petra Hartman
1992
Papier-mâché and found objects
2002.3806
Front, overall.
Boris Orlov
1989
Acrylic on wood and canvas, with found objects
2023.820
Refugee Astronaut IV
Yinka Shonibare CBE
2023
Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, net, possessions, astronaut helmet, moon boots and steel baseplate
2023.582
Easter Egg Hunt
Vernon Fisher
1981
Found objects, acrylic paint, and text panel
92.283.A-.S
Net:  Elongated Tube with Pick Mattock
Tracy Krumm
1999
Fabricated metal and found objects
2007.587
Lure:  Chain with Flared Legs
Tracy Krumm
2000
Fabricated metal and found objects
2007.589
Tracy Krumm
1995
Fabricated metal and found objects
2007.588
Prologue to Love (Gorl Dog)
James Bettison
1988–1989
Mixed media and found objects on wood
91.319
Gorgo in New York
Niki de Saint Phalle
1962
Paint, plaster, wire, and found objects on wood
62.47