Sandra Mujinga

Sandra Mujinga was born in 1989 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and moved to Norway as a child, where she grew up in Oslo and on Nesodden. Her mother, who died when Mujinga was 15,{{Cite web |last=Oftedal |first=Anna Aronsen |date=2023-08-01 |title=Stiller ut et "spøkelse" av moren i New York: — Kommer fra kjærlighet |trans-title=Exhibiting a 'ghost' of her mother in New York: It comes from love |url=https://www.utrop.no/nyheter/ansikt-i-fokus/343677/ |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=Utrop |language=en-US}} studied fashion, and always had an interest in creativity, although the poor pay in fashion led her to find employment outside of the industry.{{Cite news |last=Sumba |first=Eric Otieno |date=2021-03-23 |title=Sandra Mujinga's Spectral Figures Evoke Dark Histories and a Murky Present |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/sandra-mujinga-spectral-figures-2021 |access-date=2024-02-22 |work=Frieze |language=en |issue=218 |issn=0962-0672}} As a teenager, Mujinga wanted to become an architect, but wasn't accepted to the school she applied to, and began studying at Malmö Art Academy instead. After art school she lived and worked in Oslo and Berlin until 2023, when she moved to New York.

Her artistic breakthrough was featured in an episode of the television series Kunstnerliv (Artist's life) by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK in 2024.{{Cite news |date=2024-02-14 |title=Kunstnerliv: Sandra Mujinga og Tori Wrånes |url=https://tv.nrk.no/serie/kunstnerliv/sesong/3/episode/2/avspiller |access-date=2024-02-22 |work=NRK}}

Mujinga's work "poignantly speaks to Black representation, surveillance in society, and post-humanist and Afrofuturist ideas",{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Kate |date=2022-04-11 |title='We Are Told That This Is a Trend': How Sandra Mujinga Navigates the Mixed Emotions of Being a Black Artist on the Rise |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artist-sandra-mujinga-venice-2094912 |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}} and often uses new technologies such as holograms and video installations. She includes her own body in some of her works. For example, her three-channel video installation Pervasive Light (2021) features Mujinga wearing a cloak that combined with the use of a greenscreen causes her body to disappear, or as one reviewer described it, "causes darkness to swallow her body".{{Cite journal |last=Messerschmidt |first=Sarah |date=2022 |title=2021 Triennial: Soft Water Hard Stone |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2638079872 |journal=Art Monthly |language=en |issue=454 |access-date=2024-02-22 |id={{ProQuest|2638079872}} }}

In Sentinels of Change (2021), which was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2022, large human-like shapes were draped in recycled textiles and saturated in green light.{{Cite web |last=Ferrarini |first=Paolo |date=2022-04-22 |title=Venice Biennale 2022: Depictions of The Human Body |url=https://coolhunting.com/culture/venice-biennale-2022-depictions-of-the-human-body/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Cool Hunting |language=en-US}} One reviewer described this as being "immersed in the post-apocalyptic, humanity-deprived world of artist Sandra Mujinga".{{Cite web |last=Cougot |first=Hélène |date=2022-05-25 |title=Venice Biennale 2022: A surreal and feminine edition |url=https://magazine.luxus-plus.com/en/venice-biennale-2022-a-surreal-and-feminine-edition/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Luxus Magazine |language=en-US}}

In 2021 Mujinga won the {{ill|Preis der Nationalgalerie|de}}, Germany's most prestigious contemporary art award for artists under 40.{{Cite web |date=2021-08-10 |title=Award spotlights Sandra Mujinga's ghostly art |url=https://www.dw.com/en/award-spotlights-sandra-mujingas-ghostly-art/a-59445763 |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Deutsche Welle |language=en}} The jury celebrated the "ghostly-looking figures made of interwoven lengths of fabric that seem to float through the Hamburger Bahnhof exhibition spaces", and Mujinga's "great sensitivity for the materials used."

In 2023 Mujinga moved to New York, supported by a one-year artist grant from Office for Contemporary Art Norway.{{Cite web |last=Li |first=Xin |date=2024-02-22 |title=Sandra Mujinga nominert til prestisjetung pris |trans-title=Norwegian artist-comet nominated for prestigious award |url=https://www.nrk.no/kultur/sandra-mujinga-nominert-til-prestisjetung-pris-1.16761054 |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=NRK |language=nb-NO}} Her work Flo, a hologram installation named after her mother, was purchased by MoMA,{{Cite web |date=2023-02-27 |title=Digital Ghosts and Shape-Shifting: Sandra Mujinga's Flo |url=https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/856 |website=MoMA}} and her work Spectral Keepers (2020) was exhibited in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York{{Cite web |title=Description of Spectral Keepers, 2020 |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/audio/track/description-of-spectral-keepers-2020 |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation |language=en-US}} as part of the Going Dark exhibition in 2023.{{Cite web |title=Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/publication/going-dark-the-contemporary-figure-at-the-edge-of-visibility |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation |language=en-US}} Flo is a ghost-like figure in a dark room, projected using the 18th century Pepper's ghost technique where a mirror reflects an image so it appears like a ghost. The figure is enacted by performance artist Adrian Blount who is wearing a wearable, leather sculpture made by Mujinga that is inspired by the Jamaican body builder Anne-Marie Crooks.{{Cite web |last=Østmark |first=Ingrid Kvam |date=2023-07-19 |title=Kunstner Sandra Mujinga: – Det handler om å skape nye verdener |trans-title=Artist Sandra Mujinga: -It's about creating new worlds |url=https://costume.no/mote/intervju/sandra-mujinga-science-fiction-har-gitt-meg-muligheten-til-a-spekulere-i-andres-kropper |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=Costume |language=nb}}{{Cite web |last=Wesley |first=Gee |date=2023-03-22 |title=Everything Flows: Loops, Holds, and Spectral Enclosures |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/galleries/5557 |website=Post: Notes on art in a global context (MoMA)}} The figure flickers, almost disappearing into the darkness, and according to the artist, this ephemeral presence represents the paradox of visuality for Black people: "Up till now Black bodies are either visible and being policed, or they're completely invisible." Flo has been described as ghost-like, and is named for Mujinga's mother, who died when the artist was only 15. This echos the commercial uses of holograms to depict and reanimate the deceased, and has also been described as the Black practice of "wake work", which is a practice of care for the dead theorised by the Black literary scholar Christina Sharpe.

In 2024 Mujinga was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize, a global award for artists under 35.{{Cite web |title=PinchukArtCentre announces artists shortlist for the 7th edition of the Future Generation Art Prize |url=https://futuregenerationartprize.org/en/news/2024-01-10 |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=futuregenerationartprize.org |language=en}}

• 2024: Time as a Shield at Kunsthalle Basel.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-28 |title=Time as a Shield |url=https://www.kunsthallebasel.ch/en/exhibition/sandra-mujinga/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Kunsthalle Basel |language=en-US}}
• 2023: Love Language at Croy Nielsen in Vienna{{Cite web |last=Nielsen |first=Croy |title=Croy Nielsen — Sandra Mujinga: Love Language |url=https://croynielsen.com/exhibitions/sandra-mujinga-love-language/ |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=Croy Nielsen |language=en}}
• 2023: IBMSWR: I Build My Skin With Rocks at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum.
• 2022: Solo Oslo at the Munch Museum.{{Cite web |title=SOLO OSLO – Sandra Mujinga |url=https://www.munchmuseet.no/en/exhibitions/archive/2022/solo-oslo-sandra-mujinga/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=www.munchmuseet.no |language=en}}
• 2022: Closed Space, Open World at Malmö Konsthall.
• 2020: SONW – Shadow of New Worlds at Bergen Kunsthall.{{Cite web |title=Sandra Mujinga: SONW – Shadow of New Worlds – Announcements – e-flux |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/287122/sandra-mujingasonw-shadow-of-new-worlds/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}}
• 2018: Hoarse Globules, at Unge Kunstneres Samfund, Oslo.{{Cite web |last=Yazdani |first=Sara R. |date=2018-08-04 |title=Sandra Mujinga |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/uks-unge-kunstneres-samfund-240844/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}

Mujinga's work is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York,{{cite web |title=Sandra Mujinga |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/?utf8=✓&q=Sandra+Mujinga&classifications=any&date_begin=Pre-1850&date_end=2024&with_images=1&page=&direction= |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=22 February 2024}} and the Muzeum Sztuki, Warsaw.{{cite web |title=Sandra Mujinga |url=https://artmuseum.pl/en/news/nowe-prace-w-kolekcji-muzeum-2022 |website=Muzeum Sztuki Warsaw |access-date=22 February 2024}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.sandramujinga.com Artist's website]

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Category:Norwegian women artists

Category:1989 births

Category:Norwegian artists

Category:Norwegian video artists

Category:Living people