"AMOR A MOR - INTRODUCTION TO HUMOUR NOIR" PHARAOH KAKUDJI : Brussels

From light, to something else. Paris-based artist, Pharaoh Kakudji, presents his new exhibition Amor A Mor: Introduction to humour noir, at Stems Gallery in Brussels – from April 24th to June 1st, 2024.

Born to a Franco-Spanish mother and an Afro-American father of Congolese origin, he benefits from a creative family background blending jazz and visual arts. After materializing representations of inner feelings through his paintings, Pharaoh shifts his focus away from himself. He lives and observes around him, telling me: “I took a step back, and I feel like I sense the world.” In early 2023, maintaining his main medium - snatched posters from all over, which he repaints and recreates - he begins to produce this new series in L.A., which he continues and finishes in Paris. Walking in the world, he exhibits, meets others, interacts, and captures new nuances in humans. Darker, blacker ones.

Ça veut dire quoi noir ?
Each of us is armed daily with an instrument of our choice. Gesture, word, practice, nails, and acrylic. In a colorful brol of collages, paper shreds, sculptures, and fetishes, Pharaoh tries to create beauty from what has none. The world is absurd, and her hands like to play on this cruel joke because there are things that make you want to turn your head. It’s dark.....it’s dark ?!?? Is it?
What do you put in my palm? What do you put in your own hand?

Ça veut dire quoi noir ?
J’allais tourner la tête°
C’EST PAS BEAU TOUT ÇA MAIS ÇA EXISTE VIENS J’ESSAIE D’EN FAIRE QUELQUE CHOSE REGARDE ÇA EXISTE.

Tout est rouge, mais j’ai froid. Ça veut dire quoi blanc ?

--Clarisse Prevost