African Folklore creature, Nguva.
Half-woman, half-machine, the creature curls herself up under the sea.
An amalgam of technology and the organic.
Born from the past, but merged with the future. On her mystic face carefully stick seductive eyes and thick lips are -
apparently robbed from the outside superficial world.
Eyes seductively pasted; glaring through your soul.
A smirk that captivates, but also cautions.
The secret smile sprays an emerald green over her face,
the barnacles wilfully blooming along with it.
Soft as damp brushes, the random barnacles bite her entire body.
At the joint, they suddenly transform into armors, which are stolen from the sunken technology.
A mythical cyborg.
Cut and pasted; a smorgasbord.
Piece by piece, kill or protect? She conserves the vaguest parts of the machines,
refuses to answer.
Harboring all the secrets that she’s unearthed throughout the centuries.
Draping down her spine.
Her hair flows in the deep ocean.
The flows dissolve the artificial wax of her punk hairs,
as they move and shake artlessly under the sea.
Tightly, withered yellow seaweeds kiss the hair, the kinship with the ocean cuddles her flesh.
Hugging the curves of her body.
Behind her splatters a monochromatic ocean, aggressively marked on the canvas.
Erratic sprays embellish the gloomy seabed, which is soon illuminated by this vibrant nguva.
The sprays almost emulate how the Nguva feels within her heart.
Desolate and alone.
Gradient colors flush across the muse’s body, from emerald to ruby to aerolite,
finally leaving a moonstone white on her abnormal leg.
Proudly stepping in a high heel formed from fragmentary machines, she is an ancient alien from reality,
where the upper world only values her flesh.
She is the mythical cyborg.
Wangechi Mutu, Hide 'n' Seek, Kill or Speak, 2004
Paint, ink, collage, mixed media on Mylar48 × 42 in.The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn2004.13.3
https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/hide-n-seek-kill-or-speak