Being taught to despise your body is being taught to perhaps admire someone else's body more than yours - being taught that your body is good for certain things and not for others.
Wangechi MutuRead
I've always loved the idea that you think you know what you're looking at from a distance, yet when you come up close, it gets intricate and nutty and obscene and provocative.
Interpretation
The quote reflects how things appear simple from afar but reveal complexity upon closer inspection.
Wangechi Mutu's quote speaks to the nature of perception and the rich intricacies that lie beneath the surface of what we initially observe. It suggests that our understanding of a subject often deepens and becomes more complicated as we engage with it more closely, turning our initial perceptions into a realization of complexity that can be both shocking and inspiring.
In practice
During an art exhibition, this quote could be used to describe how viewers should approach each piece with an open mind and seek deeper meanings.
Being taught to despise your body is being taught to perhaps admire someone else's body more than yours - being taught that your body is good for certain things and not for others.
Gold and precious gems are, in many places, the one form of wealth a woman can use to protect and enhance herself within the elaborate structure of patriarchy.
The ocean is the source of life. We all come from there. I think about these one-celled creatures, and I think about the planet. It is related to my obsession with biology, even if it's only a layperson's obsession. The way I visualise what's at the bottom of the ocean is very much to do with how I feel when I'm swimming in the sea.
Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.
I love to see lack of clarity in a performance as well as clarity, as well as trust, as well as the kinds of things that human beings go through. I love to see spontaneity and 'inevitability.' How it gets there is going to shock the hell out of me, but it will get there somehow.
The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.
I try to let go of the intellect and just tell the story. I only read the page I have in front of me on the screen. Then when the whole story is told, I print it, wait a week and read it.
The BAFTAs give the British point of view, and the Oscars give the American point of view, but the truth is we're all working in an international industry.
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