Pose 2 (Primary Title)

In this composition, a young girl poses beside a stack of neatly arranged cinder blocks; on top of the bricks sits a partially wrapped, wooden sculpture from the Luba culture in the form of a kneeling figure holding a bowl. On the girl’s other side is a table covered with lace cloth and topped with a Catholic incense burner. The girl wears a papa’s cap, upper gown, and skirt, all checkered. Except for the eyes, lips, and fingernails, her skin is painted to look like electronic circuitry. The girl’s gaze is fixed on something in front of her that we cannot see. Her pose is determined and firmly grounded. In its juxtaposition of unusual details, this work lends itself to numerous interpretive possibilities.

Born in Kinshasa in 1991, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga has had a firsthand view of the numerous problems bedeviling Congolese environmental and social spheres in the early 21st century, prompting him to explore these themes in his paintings. His works delve into the aftereffects of the legacy of colonialism, which still haunts the contemporary Congo. It’s difficult to ignore the sadness within his Congolese personas. His works depict what he perceives as a neocolonial mindset that continues to burden ordinary Congolese people. Despite more than six decades of independence from Belgium, the Congo has yet to be liberated from the appropriation of its abundant natural resources by foreign powers and multinationals. From the exploitation of rubber resources at the turn of the twentieth century to the global depredation of the country’s diamonds, gold, copper, uranium, cobalt, coltan, and lithium, the constant plundering of the Congo has deeply affected its history and ability to evolve.