Liz Mputu

Liz Mputu
Liz Mputu
Born	Elizabeth Mputu
Nationality	Congolese American
Education	School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Elizabeth Mputu is an artist based in Orlando, Florida.[1] Mputu is a ‘multiplatform, multimedia artist who engages in work which relates to sex, gender, race and

queerness’.[2] Mputu works within a space of feminist net art to understand the whiteness and privilege on the internet.[2] Mputu constructs projects using interactive media, video, sculpture and installation.[2]

Background

Mputu is a first generation Congolese American, and is currently based out of Orlando, FL.[1] Mputu first began working creatively with technology during high school by journaling, writing poetry, curating content on Tumblr, editing Myspace photos and making lip sync videos on YouTube.[1] Mputu dropped out of DePaul University and then went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a semester while studying performance art.[1] In 2016, Mputu was working as a freelance Social Media Marketer while also selling artwork.[1]

Selected works

TeachMeTeaseMe

TeachMeTeaseMe was a Facebook group created by Mputu. It is archived on Tumblr at (https://teachmeteaseme.tumblr.com/). Mputu created this online forum to comfort people on topics related to sex, sexuality, the taboo, body positivity and gender identity.[1] It was moderated with the intent to educate and facilitate dialog around sexuality[1] It was deleted off of Facebook after one year.[1]

Broken Windows

Broken Windows is an interactive web browser project that transports the viewer into new insights via the mystical alliance of digital guides,[3] These guides, or ‘windows,’ appear in the form of varying ‘clickable’ objects positioned throughout different sets presented on the screen.[3] The worlds explored include the realities of a police state that has weaponized surveillance, as well as the reactions of a public that rebels against it.[3] Broken Windows is a look into how these groups of people are then subject to further violence that can at times be lethal on both sides.[3] For example, the police raids and the civil riots that challenge those tactics.[3]

LVLZ Healing Center

LVLZ Healing Center is an installation that Mputu created and was displayed at Interstitial in Georgetown/Seattle, WA.[4] This installation was Mputu's first physical art piece, since all of Mputu's previous work was digital.[4] The space was divided into four “portals of healing” which all encompass an “art therapy pod”.[5] Each pod is meant to simulate and represent another space.[4] For example, “Pod 1: Welcome Center,” “Pod 2: Level A” is a waiting room, “Pod 3: Level O” is a media and learning center, and “Pod 4: Level Zed” is an apothecary.[4] The whole exhibition uses “video, interactive media, sculpture, and installation… [to] reconstruct our notions of well being”.[6]

Cyber Serenity

Cyber Serenity is a project created by Mputu that targets those who need therapeutic attention.[7] Individuals who have stressors involving self-worth, the internet, and/or artistic dilemmas are the intended audience for this site.[7] The project aims to provide “art therapy, holistic healing, internet related self-care and spiritual consultation”.[7]