Wangechi Mutu’s seductive and cryptic “Sentinels” draw themes from a lifetime of collages and translate them into three dimensions. Her African Daphnes freeze mid-morph, with branches winding from necks and across torsos. It’s hard to know whether we’re witnessing the transformation of woman into tree, or the other way around. Maybe Mutu’s creatures are an amalgam of different states and stories: Eve, the serpent and the Tree of Knowledge fused into a single writhing organism.
June 5 2019