Awe-Inspiring, Monumental Joana Vasconcelos Installation Celebrates Pioneering African-American ‘Valkyrie’ At MAAM, Boston’s Only Free Contemporary Art Museum

“A first glimpse of vibrant textile elements that comprise Valkyrie Mumbet, a colossal sculpture suspended from a 37-foot tall ceiling, is humbling and stupendous. The magnificent installation elegantly showcases an array of cotton cloths highlighting lively prints borrowing from African patterns and geometric designs in contrasting colors which invite the eye on a mesmerizing journey. Portuguese handicrafts, such as Pico lace, lavish silks, velvets, linen, lustrous beads, crocheted and knitted materials, pompoms, fringe, and petite LED lights, engage and direct our gaze. Dangling ornamental elements the artist acquired in India protrude from the fringe in the center of the installation.”