Van Kal Mon (1961) - Code noir

A very beautiful piece by Gérard Van Kal Mon, which I bought in the early 2000s when I was in Réunion. It is one of his early works.

Gérard Van Kal Mon's earliest artistic productions, in the 1980s, begin with photographic work on the accumulations of objects, then on the beads of exotic woods (traces of humans, markings…).
In the 1990s, after his installation on the island of Réunion, he takes up sculpture, the beginning of a body of work on the traditional arts with wood, clay, plaster… To create a palette of colors, he develops a smoke-fuming technique based on different tree species…
He returns to the topic of accumulations by using slender clay figures. These will be used for installations and happenings…
Then comes the start of a body of work on slavery with the assembly of metal pieces mainly sourced from agricultural tools. It was not a question of illustrating this subject with chains that enslave man but of paying homage to the cultures of these enslaved peoples by highlighting the majesty of individuals, the beauty of the headdresses, the adornments of African ethnic groups…
In 2011, a return to southern France and a continuation of the work on slavery titled “Code noir” and a new theme “War and Peace,” a series of sculptures on masculine war adornment, with an ever greater refinement in metal assembly up to today, where metal moves, lets light pass through, where the sculpture becomes “haute couture”…