L'attitude face à la mondialisation (Attitudes towards Globalization)

Inscriptions

Signed, on reverse, upper left, in black ink: EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA / Kamuanga [underlined] 2015

Label

In L’attitude face à la mondialisation (Attitudes toward Globalization), Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga blends vivid colors, invented language, Congolese patterns, electronic motherboards, and aspects of Mangbetu cultural identity. In the center, a Mangbetu woman balances a globe on her knee, alluding to the forces of globalization and acculturation. Ilunga refers to the Mangbetu through the figure’s traditional headdress, which emphasizes her elongated head, a sign of beauty in Mangbetu culture, and through the colorful and intricate fabric of her skirt. The artist contrasts these traditional elements with modern and digital imagery.

Besides her Western footgear, bra, and skirt, the surface of the woman’s skin mimics that of a computer chip, immediately calling to mind technology and modernization. More importantly, this alludes to coltan, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most valued natural resource, used to power computer chips and mobile phones. The brown shape under the figure’s foot could refer to the raw material wealth and mining history of the country. Additionally, Ilunga introduces his own signature language of pattern and form via two lines of code-like symbols that span the work.

From the 2019 exhibition Global Contemporary: A Focus on Africa, curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Curator of African Art

Course History

AAAS 67.5, GEOG 21.01, Black Consciousness and Black Feminisms, Abigail Neely, Winter 2019

HIST 66/AAAS 15, History of Africa Since 1800, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Winter 2021

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

Humanities 2.01, The Modern Labyrinth, Lucas Hollister, Petra McGillen, Andrea Tarnowski, Laura Edmondson, Winter 2023

Exhibition History

Global Contemporary: A Focus on Africa; Dorothy and Churchill Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-December 8, 2019.

Publication History

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 215, ill. plate no. 146.

Provenance

Galerie Imane Fares, Paris, France; sold to present collection, 2017.

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Subjects