Liz Mputu
Liz Mputu | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Mputu |
| Nationality | Congolese American |
| Education | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
Elizabeth Mputu is an artist based in Orlando, Florida.[1] Mputu is a "multiplatform, multimedia artist who engages in work which relates to sex, gender, race and queerness".[2] Mputu works within a space of feminist net art to understand the whiteness and privilege on the internet.[2] Mputu constructs projects using interactive media, video, sculpture and installation.[2]
Background[edit]
Mputu is a first-generation Congolese American.[1] Mputu first began working creatively with technology during high school by journaling, writing poetry, curating content on Tumblr, editing Myspace photos and making lip sync videos on YouTube.[1] Mputu dropped out of DePaul University and then went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a semester while studying performance art.[1] As of 2016[update], Mputu was working in Orlando, Florida as a freelance Social Media marketer while also selling artwork.[1]
Selected works[edit]
TeachMeTeaseMe[edit]
TeachMeTeaseMe was a Facebook group created by Mputu. It is archived on Tumblr at (https://teachmeteaseme.tumblr.com/). Mputu created this online forum to comfort people on topics related to sex, sexuality, the taboo, body positivity and gender identity.[1] It was moderated with the intent to educate and facilitate dialog around sexuality[1] It was deleted from Facebook after one year.[1]
Broken Windows[edit]
Broken Windows is an interactive web browser project that transports the viewer into new insights via the mystical alliance of digital guides,[3] These guides, or "windows", appear in the form of varying ‘clickable’ objects positioned throughout different sets presented on the screen.[3] The worlds explored include the realities of a police state that has weaponized surveillance, as well as the reactions of a public that rebels against it.[3] Broken Windows is a look into how these groups of people are then subject to further violence that can at times be lethal on both sides.[3] For example, the police raids and the civil riots that challenge those tactics.[3]
LVLZ Healing Center[edit]
LVLZ Healing Center is an installation that Mputu created and was displayed at Interstitial in Georgetown/Seattle, WA.[4] This installation was Mputu's first physical art piece, since all of Mputu's previous work was digital.[4] The space was divided into four “portals of healing” which all encompass an “art therapy pod”.[5] Each pod is meant to simulate and represent another space.[4] For example, "Pod 1: Welcome Center", "Pod 2: Level A" is a waiting room, "Pod 3: Level O" is a media and learning center, and "Pod 4: Level Zed" is an apothecary.[4] The whole exhibition uses "video, interactive media, sculpture, and installation… [to] reconstruct our notions of well being".[6]
Cyber Serenity[edit]
Cyber Serenity is a project created by Mputu that targets those who need therapeutic attention.[7] Individuals who have stressors involving self-worth, the internet, and/or artistic dilemmas are the intended audience for this site.[7] The project aims to provide "art therapy, holistic healing, internet related self-care and spiritual consultation".[7]
Exhibitions[edit]
- Alembic I: Mystic Body (England (UK)-27 January–10 March 2018[8]
- A Situation of Meat (Portland) - Cyberserenity September 23–October 29, 2017[9]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Artist Profile: Elizabeth Mputu". Rhizome. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ a b c "Elizabeth Mputu - UW Artist Talk / Disjecta Performance". Mad Mimi. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ a b c d e "Artist Liz Mputu Talks Surveillance Culture, Mysticism and "Broken Windows"". PAPER. 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ a b c d Pm, Leah St Lawrence (23 October 2017). "And When I Get That Feeling I Want Virtual Healing: Elizabeth Mputu Installation at Interstitial". The Stranger. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ Nguyen, Minh (2017-09-13). "Liz Mputu Creates a Physical Testing Zone for Digital Spirituality". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ "interstitial". www.interstitialtheatre.com. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ a b c "CYBER SERENITY BY 100%LIZ". Storenvy. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ "Alembic I: Mystic Body". Res. 2018-01-08. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ Shell, Blake. "A Situation of Meat". disjecta. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
Further reading[edit]
- "Artist Liz Mputu talks surveillance culture, mysticism and "Broken windows"". Paper. September 23, 2016.
- Anaïs Duplan (November 3, 2016). "What Does Your Liberation Look Like?: In Conversation with Liz Mputu and Justin Phillip Reed". Ploughshares Fund. Emerson College.
- Manuel Arturo Abreu (June 30, 2016). "Artist Profile: Elizabeth Mputu – The latest in a series of interviews with artists who have a significant body of work that makes use of or responds to network culture and digital technologies". Acid Rain.