Mulumba Tshikuka
Mulumba Tshikuka is a London-based Congolese Canadian self-taught conceptual artist. His works are visual metaphors exploring the duplicity of human nature.
“A spectrum of good and evil exists within us all. The places we are born, the psychological, physical, and material cards we are dealt … these happenstances and a shifting mix of cocktails determine the paths we navigate as leaders and followers. Through such folly and conflict, life without art is bereft of hope.”
Born to an old-school African disciplinarian, under the reign of a kleptomaniac, Mulumba’s playful portraits suggest we live in a joyous, liberal world. The mix of original paintings, drawings, and limited-edition prints are available for purchase.
"I have painted the Queen Black as it is my dream to liberate her. I genuinely believe The Queen would be delighted to suddenly wake up a Black Woman tomorrow. Now she can let loose and have a bit of a dance. Less porcelain, more straight talk. What purpose and good was the British Empire conquering the world, if not to elevate lives, and render everyone equal? Besides, every human colour can rule over an empire and be plunderous and vicious and murderous. A Black Queen could personify virtue and care and conscious patience, much as Queen Elizabeth conveys. Naturally, every woman should be a Queen in the selfless eyes of the coloniser …
But stereotypes and sarcasms aside, I would like to believe Queen Elizabeth would be honoured. The Black Queen is unequivocally a painting about empowerment. About dreaming big and reimaging the world … Humanity is in dire need of deep self-reflection.
As the Queen approaches a century in age, and countries like Barbados drop the monarch as their head of state and others in the Commonwealth Realm vigorously debate the legacy of the crown. As the Black Lives Matter Movement forces systemic reckoning and statues and monuments that have long honoured racist figures are boxed up, spray-painted, or beheaded, and the Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harrises of the world rise. As a pandemic sends masses into timeout, dividing and conquering in its wake. And as right here in Post-Brexit London and United Kingdom we stand at the precipice of the unknown, perhaps therein is hidden the magic seed for reimagining a truly multicultural, collaborative, and outward looking society. This Black Queen represents the breaking of the shackles of our binary cages.
The idea of a Black Queen should not be a shocking ideal, but the natural recognition of the potential within, and the power of Women in particular. Every Woman Is Queen. She is hope.