October Gallery presents Nature Morte, a new solo exhibition by Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, one of the most exciting contemporary artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Kamuanga’s fourth solo show at October Gallery, his striking paintings explore the hidden consequences of the toxic waste-matter that is poisoning the environment upon which local Congolese communities are dependent for survival and the basic necessities of life.
This latest series is a masterful blend of storytelling and symbolism, where each canvas helps to develop a shared narrative that uncovers a distinctly modern predicament. Unlike Kamuanga’s previous series, which investigated historical issues arising from slavery and the lasting legacies of colonial expansion, these paintings depict a modern-day nursery scene filled with plastic toys, baby-chairs and all the paraphernalia telling of the arrival of a new-born baby. Yet, each character seems listlessly fixated by the colourful yet lifeless objects that represent the missing child, the only vital figure whose presence could give significance to the various mises-en-scene. The exhibition’s title, Nature Morte (Fr. literally ‘dead nature’) is generally translated into English as ‘still life,’ and describes portraits of inanimate objects arranged for display. Given the intense focus of the mother and other family members surrounding the infant’s high-chair and the heap of untouched toys, the term takes on more disturbing implications, suggesting that the absent infant was either still-born or has recently died.
The almost surreal drama playing out before our eyes brings DRC’s traumatic history of exploitation by foreign powers right up to the present moment. The artist’s attention has moved beyond the horrific histories of Belgian colonial control to the contemporary situation where the neo-colonial powers have once again asserted control over the lives of ordinary Congolese people. To fulfil the insatiable demands of the computer industry and “green” battery production facilities, international companies are currently engaged in the rapid extraction of the Congo’s rich mineral resources, in particularly cobalt, copper, and coltan. Currently, over 40% of the heavy metal mining capacity of the country is controlled by Chinese enterprises, adding an ironic undertone to the cheap, plastic accessories, for not to mention the ‘cute’ Panda face appearing in paintings such as Red Energy. For many years, disturbing reports of deforestation, land pollution by wastewater spillages, contamination of drinking water and the restriction of local populations’ movements have become increasingly common. The harmful impacts of industrial mining processes on food production, human health and local biodiversity have been well-documented, particularly in Katanga in the Central part of the DRC, to where Kamuanga’s father and mother both trace their origins.
With their skin marked by intricate patterns of digital circuitry, Kamuanga’s figures, act as unwilling witnesses to the constant collision between the opposing worlds of ancestral and modern and of local and global forces. The paintings detail the awful cost in human life that our incessant demands for modern technology impose upon the unseen victims caught up in the consequences of industrial scale mining that takes little account of environmental destruction and human degradation. Burdened by the crushing weight of history, Kamuanga’s iconic figures bear the scars of a nation struggling to navigate the treacherous waters of neo-colonial exploitation, together with the erosion of a cultural heritage incapable of protecting the natural environment that, previously, had nurtured and sustained it.
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