Sandra Mujinga: ILYNL (It’s Like You Never Left)

If a projection could represent us, the real us, in multiple locations at any given time, would we really be anywhere? ILYNL (It’s Like You Never Left) begins with a split screen: one side is the hustle and bustle of a chaotic street – perhaps in the artist’s birthplace of the Democratic Republic of Congo – as told via the freedom and agility of a motor bike. The car horns, the weaving traffic, vendors under umbrellas, everything remains in continuous motion. 

The second half of the screen shows multiple images of the artist wearing a futuristic grey suit pacing within a green monochrome backdrop. Wandering, she appears to be reasoning with someone, reasoning with herself. The neutralness of the space should elicit calm, but instead furthers an emotional isolation as she and her avatars strain to explain themselves on numerous fronts. There are always these fragments of videos gathered from places far, far away maintaining their little space of the screen as reminders. Mementos of former homes and keepsakes from current ambitions. When the scene jumps to the calm of a swimming pool, there is a short-lived serenity, the world has spotted spinning, before the camera pans to a barbed wire fence that keeps the outside world at a real distance. It’s difficult to make a house a home, when attempting to fully live online. No matter where you go, there you are. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website