CINTHIA SIFA MULANGA

Cinthia Sifa Mulanga (b. 1997, Lubumbashi, DRC) was initially trained as a printmaker but soon gravitated towards painting and collage - the mediums that have come to define her practice. 

The core focus of Mulanga’s art is to challenge the representation of Black female subjects by investigating the individual’s relationship with space. Space works on multiple levels in Mulanga’s artworks; on the one hand, it represents the space itself. On the other, it is symbolic as an extension of the individual. The space embodies the human, morphing into an independent protagonist. As is the case with different facets of the human soul, these multi-spaces exist in one moment, inviting one to reflect and interact with them if and when they are ready. It is in these liminal moments that Cinthia Sifa Mulanga highlights the nuances and complexities of a Black woman's identity in today’s world. 

Mulanga developed a fascination with the radical self-acceptance and self-confidence that Black women exude despite the systems of white patriarchy that bear down heavily on the conditions set for Black women in accruing visibility, success and confidence. Typically, the artist juxtaposes several different women in her paintings, highlighting the complexities of female identity and the stream of varying consciousnesses that occupy a single space, identity or moment in time. As such, her paintings also operate as multi-perspectival portraits. 

This polyphonic character is amplified through the introduction of additional female subjects via the inclusion of painted or collaged artworks on the walls of the rooms occupied by her subjects. These images of women, typically sourced from popular culture or the history of western painting, serve as a reminder of how the strictures of the female gender and beauty are reinforced and bear down on the artist’s subjects. In this way, Mulanga is in conversation with the tradition of western painting, challenging the absence of Black female subjects and the representation of women at the hands of male artists.

The visual references and influences in Mulanga’s oeuvre are largely rooted in her adopted home of South Africa, where she grew up and trained as an artist. At times, Mulanga references well-known artworks produced by her South African contemporaries. They are intended as tributes to their work, and playful acts of recontextualisation. This referential element is also driven by Mulanga’s own desire to plot spaces beyond her reach or that of her viewers. This is further complemented by furniture and decorative pieces that evoke aspirational lifestyles advanced by decor magazines. The clothing and dress that define Mulanga’s subjects are equally important, particularly as they represent their status or identity. The artist has further cemented this sartorial link through collaborations with the iconoclastic South African brand L’MAD and Alessandro Michele, designer of the Gucci Diana tote bag. From this perspective, the complex pictorial planes that Mulanga creates are like vision boards wherein she presents ideal lifestyles enjoyed by Black women, as envisioned by a capitalist society.

Artwork above: Cinthia Sifa Mulanga, Elements - In Her Finest, 2022, Mixed Media on stretched canvas