Eat Cake
Object Label
Like much of Wangechi Mutu’s multidisciplinary work, Eat Cake focuses on a female protagonist. A mysterious woman (played by Mutu) with unkempt hair, clawlike nails, and translucent platform heels messily devours, and then destroys, a chocolate cake. The woman’s sumptuous clothing and voracious appetite invite reflection on humankind’s separation from the natural world and patterns of excessive consumption. Her ritualistic movements suggest an attempt to reconnect with both the earthly and spirit realms of the forest around her (in actuality, nearby Prospect Park).
Caption
Wangechi Mutu Kenyan, born 1972. Eat Cake, 2012. Video (black and white, sound): 12 minutes, 45 seconds; wooden pallets; newsprint. Brooklyn Museum, Alfred T. White Fund, 2014.9. © artist or artist's estate
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Eat Cake
Date
2012
Medium
Video (black and white, sound): 12 minutes, 45 seconds; wooden pallets; newsprint
Classification
Credit Line
Alfred T. White Fund
Accession Number
2014.9
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
Why is she eating dirt? And, why is this on the floor?
That is a video work by the artist Wangechi Mutu, who you may know for her ink/collage/paintings. She is actually not eating dirt; she is messily eating a multi-tiered chocolate cake! But it does look like dirt in the black and white film, doesn't it? The piece is on the floor because that is how the artist designed the work to be shown. It forces us as viewers to bend over or even squat to see it, mimicking the woman's position.What is happening here? What is she eating? why?
The title of the work is "Eat Cake" and she's eating cake, literally. She wants us to think about consumption and greed in the modern world. A lot of her work also addresses issues of violence against women in contemporary life.I don't understand the meaning behind this video.
That video is titled "Eat Cake" which is one of the things the artist is doing in her own film. It's almost like a dark fairy tale, showing her in the forest in her gown.However, she was thinking about more troubling issues, including greed, violence against women (here she is crouching, almost submissive), and the ways that people are disconnected from nature in contemporary life. It's an unsettling work but one that draws in a lot of visitors.
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