VON KAL MON - CONDOR

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

The early artistic productions of Gérard Van Kal Mon, in the 1980s, begin with photographic work on the accumulations of objects and then on exotic wooden marbles (traces of humans, markings…)
In the 1990s, after his settlement on the island of Réunion, he takes up sculpture; this marks the beginning of work on the arts of the first peoples with wood, clay, plaster… To create a palette of colors, he develops a fumage technique based on different species of trees…
He returns to the subject of accumulations using slender clay-smoked figures. These will be used for installations and happenings…

Then comes the beginning of a project on slavery with the assemblage 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 headdresses, the adornments of African ethnic groups…
Year 2011, return to the south of France and continuation of the work undertaken on slavery, named “Code noir” and a new subject “War and Peace,” a series of sculptures on the masculine adornment of war, with ever greater refinement in the metal assembly up to today where the metal enters into movement, lets light pass through, where the sculpture becomes “haute couture”…