Sandra Mujinga, a visionary artist, deftly navigates the intricate relationship between personal identity, public presentation, and the pervasive influence of technology in her multidisciplinary works. Through captivating sculptures, evocative videos, and dynamic performances, Mujinga constructs immersive experiences that challenge viewers to confront preconceived notions of presence and absence. Her artistic practice, deeply rooted in her Congolese heritage and diverse upbringing, offers a profound commentary on self-perception and the complex ways in which individuals are seen—or choose not to be seen—in the modern world.
Artist Sandra Mujinga's Explorations of Identity and the Unseen
In November, artist Sandra Mujinga, currently based in Berlin and Oslo, unveiled a new performance piece at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. This event offered a glimpse into her ongoing exploration of how clothing and visual presentation function as a form of non-verbal communication and identity construction. Mujinga recounted a pivotal experience from a decade ago during a visit to Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital. There, she was struck by the local populace's deliberate and joyful approach to dressing, perceiving it as a collective effort to embody beauty through vibrant attire and meticulous presentation. This observation solidified her belief that fashion serves as a rich source of 'data' or a 'storytelling' medium, informing her approach to costuming her monumental, fabric-draped sculptures, which often appear as otherworldly beings.
Mujinga's artistic endeavors frequently infuse a science fiction aesthetic, presenting tall, enigmatic figures bathed in an eerie green light. These creations evoke both fantastical, alternate dimensions and the unsettling realities of our digitally saturated present. A prime example is her expansive installation, Skin to Skin (2025), which recently concluded its run at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam before its subsequent exhibition at the Belvedere museum in Vienna. This installation features 55 slender figures, each with tentacle-like arms, resembling an ethereal army. Grouped around seven mirrored columns, these nine-and-a-half-foot tall entities invite viewer interaction, yet deliberately obscure themselves with textiles of the artist's own design, preventing full visibility. Melanie Bühler, a curator at Stedelijk, lauded Mujinga's multifaceted approach, describing her as a 'renaissance woman' who seamlessly integrates sculptural elements with sound and light to construct entire immersive worlds.
The deliberate use of intense green lighting in installations like Sentinels of Change (2021), showcased at the 2022 Venice Biennale, serves a specific purpose for Mujinga. She acknowledges that this vibrant hue challenges viewers' visual perception, often leaving lingering afterimages. Mujinga views this 'green' as a 'cloak,' an intentional barrier that alters how her art is experienced and interpreted.
Her video installation, Pervasive Light (2021), which premiered at the New Museum Triennial, further explores themes of visibility and invisibility. The 16-minute piece features musician Mariama Ndure emerging from and receding into a stark black void, accompanied by a pulsating score. While seemingly filmed in darkness, the effect was achieved through digital manipulation of green fabrics worn by Ndure, a technique Mujinga developed to address the historical challenges of accurately photographing Black skin. She intentionally leverages the difficulty cameras have with her skin tone, transforming it into a tool of strategic opacity.
Ashley James, a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, included Pervasive Light in her 2023 exhibition 'Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,' highlighting Mujinga's acute awareness of technology's role in surveillance and the dangers associated with hyper-visibility. James noted Mujinga's ingenious use of 'technological tools of opacity' to counteract this dominance, particularly in challenging the ways Black individuals, especially Black women, are often perceived or rendered invisible. Mujinga's formative years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by moves to Oslo and Nairobi, deeply influenced her artistic perspective. Her experiences with racial awareness, including recognizing negative portrayals in media and her mother's admonitions against skin bleaching, instilled in her a profound understanding of the political dimensions of identity and representation. This transnational existence fostered an acute awareness of historical erasure and the continuous reinvention of self, leading her to the internet in the early 2010s as a means of 'archiving herself.' Influenced by artists like Zach Blas, who weaponized digital surveillance tools to render queer individuals invisible to tracking mechanisms, Mujinga embraced the idea that non-visibility could be a strategic advantage.
Working within the philosophical framework of sci-fi authors such as Octavia Butler, Mujinga actively seeks to 'decenter the human' in her art. Her fascination with deep-sea creatures, which thrive in darkness, inspired Sunless Mouths, her performance at the Park Avenue Armory. This piece depicted a group of godlike siblings, clad in black garments reminiscent of her sculptures, moving deliberately through frosted Plexiglas panels. The vague narrative explored themes of oppressive maternal figures and children who forge their own paths, generating metaphorical 'snowstorms' to escape control. Mujinga mused on how individuals sharing the same space can have vastly different experiences, a reflection perhaps of her own upbringing with two siblings. Her art often intertwines with her personal history, as seen in Flo (2019), a gigantic projection at the Museum of Modern Art named after her late mother. Through her creative process, Mujinga continually reinterprets her past and reinvents herself, embodying her belief that 'it’s always possible to start from scratch. You can always move somewhere and start again.'
Sandra Mujinga's work offers a compelling narrative on the power of art to reshape perceptions and challenge societal norms. Her intricate blending of personal history, cultural commentary, and futuristic aesthetics encourages viewers to engage with complex questions of identity, visibility, and agency in an increasingly interconnected yet fragmented world. Her art serves as a powerful reminder that even in an era of constant surveillance, there remains a profound strength in controlling one's own narrative and choosing when, and how, to be seen.