Valkyrie Mumbet integrates the Valkyrie series, initiated in 2004, inspired by the powerful female characters of Norse mythology that fly over battlefields on winged horses and bring the bravest warriors back to life to serve as gods. Following the path of the Valkyries specially designed for the Palace of Versailles, Le Bon Marché of Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Vasconcelos now highlights Elizabeth Freeman alongside other notable figures in feminist history - intellectual, philosopher and political activist Simone de Beauvoir; lawyer and politician Simone Veil; and 4th century pilgrim and first woman travel writer Egeria; among others.
On February 22, 2020 Joana Vasconcelos unveiled Valkyrie Mumbet, an inaugural site-specific work in her first U.S. solo museum exhibition at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), the newest and only free contemporary art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Valkyrie Mumbet pays tribute to Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman, an enslaved African American woman who was the first to win a freedom suit based on the newly adopted Massachusetts Constitution which declared that “all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights…” in the state of Massachusetts in 1781.
References to Freeman are seen in the textile elements representing fabric that Freeman owned (silks, velvets, linen) as well as the beads from Freeman’s golden choker necklace. Vasconcelos is also using capulana fabric from Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, calling attention to Portugal’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. Other references to the artist’s country include components of Portuguese handicrafts, such as Pico lace, which will be familiar to the Azorean community living in New England. Vasconcelos has painstakingly planned her textile sculpture to be suspended from the 37-ft tall ceiling of MAAM’s Stephen D. Paine Gallery. Visitors may interact with and view Valkyrie Mumbet from multiple perspectives: strolling freely among the four descending arms beneath the artwork; gathering underneath the multiple arms along the perimeter of the gallery; and walking up the stairs to the 20 ft tall by 40 ft wide balcony to see the entire work from above. After six months of production in Vasconcelos’ studio, these components were installed over the course of two weeks by the artist’s team with the help of the MAAM preparatory team and MassArt students.
