MASK_ULINITY
An Exhibition by Njung’e Wanjiru“Not all masks are meant to conceal. Some hold us together.”
Mask_ulinity explores the multiple layers of masculinities in the contemporary African context. The series unveils the shifting masks that men and boys carry in their everyday lives, navigating different roles and expectations in relationships, families, as well as their communities. These masks are expression of identity, belonging, love, loss, survival, or resistance. Some reveal softness and affirmation, while others convey struggle, pain, trauma, and silence. Many are inherited and passed down through generations.
Drawing on themes of tradition and culture, Mask_ulinity quietly reclaims and loudly celebrates African masculinities by revealing the softness behind the façades. The work embraces the idea of multiple masculinities, defying singular definitions. Masculinity here is not fixed, it is fluid, inherited, redefined, broken, and healed.
Njung’e brings together eighteen deeply personal digital paintings that reflect on Black men and boys in different moments of vulnerability, intimacy, brotherhood, spirituality, and healing. In this body of work, masculinity is found in cultural representations of a father braiding his daughter’s hair, a brother’s support in times of grief and loss, or a group of community elders sharing mundane moments over a game of bao. Framed by rhythm, color, and gesture, these images question how masculinity is perceived, performed, or sustained.
The exhibition invites for reflection, learning, unlearning, and relearning. Njung’e hopes to share a nuanced perspective on the complexities and contradictions of masculinities in the African context. His work becomes a call for care, connection, and solidarity.
About the Artist:
Njung’e Wanjiru is visual artist based between Addis and Nairobi, exploring the media of illustration, animation, and filmmaking. Through visual communication and documentation, Njung’e captures, archives, and transforms diverse knowledges, perspectives, and ideas. As digital native, Njung’e creates visual art at the intersections of African culture, social narratives, and technology. His artworks make reference to the concepts of nature, heritage, representation, and accessibility.
Listen up.
Part II: To Hear
In the animation room, masculinity becomes voice.
Through recorded testimonies from friends, strangers, and acquaintances, Mask-ulinity extends beyond the visual into lived experience. You’ll hear perspectives on rage and fear, love and loss, pride, shame and intimacy. These are unfiltered reflections to the below questions:
- What does it mean to be a man? What are you afraid to show?
- What mask do you wear every day?
- When did you last cry?
- What were you taught not to feel?
- Who sees the real you?
Some voices are confident. Others hesitate, break, laugh, or avoid answering altogether. But together, they form a sonic quilt of strength and vulnerability, complexity and contradiction.
The animation holds these voices in a motion abstract visuals, soft motion, and layered soundscapes. Here, masculinity is not static. It moves. It listens. It asks again.This room asks for your ears. And maybe, your reflection.