Wangechi Mutu, Amazing Grace, 2005

In Amazing Grace (2005), Mutu brings to life powerful video art rooted in the origins of the Atlantic slave trade that casts the ocean as a paradoxical character. Mutu describes the ocean as both a birthplace for all organisms as well as a site of unfathomable destruction as the pathway for the slave trade and for migrant boats. Throughout Amazing Grace, Mutu immerses herself slowly into the sea while singing the Christian hymn referenced in the title in her native Kenyan language, Kikuyu, in an act of self-baptism and meditation.

WANGECHI MUTU, Amazing Grace, 2005. Digital color video, transferred from Super 8 film with sound, 7 minutes, 9 seconds. Edition of 6. Courtesy of the Artist.