The inner life
For this exhibition, I got my inspiration from the inner part of human beings.
I have noticed that many people have faults hidden inside them, which you cannot see when you look at them.
Some look like they have everything they need in life, an expensive sport car, a huge house, and they are such good looking, but when you ask them what problems they may have faced in life, you sometimes discover that they carry such problems you would never think a man can live with.
Our modern world has created complex technologies, which have slowly driven them apart from nature and complex systems in which people have difficulties to survive. Human beings now tend to think that peace cannot be reached before they die. This is why I have painted men who lack of one hand, of one foot, of their head… and I show how life circulate inside their body.

Artist statement
I use art as a communication tool to influence people to develop their spirituality.
I don’t create artwork as a new object, which will be displayed with no intention.
I am a great fan of Kandinsky who used to write that “Art should serve spirituality”, “art is a strength and a power full of intentions, it should serve development and improvement of the human soul”. Since 2006, I have followed a new direction in art, I am no longer only inspired by african way of life, I have started sangism, which literally means “MIX”.
I work outside academic art rules, using a variety of contemporary arts and techniques.
In my art, I speak about events, which I have experienced in my life, things I have witnessed. I have always spent a lot of time lost in my thoughts, thinking how to progress.



Biograhy
Born in 1981, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. I spent my early childhood in Kalemie, Shaba region. My family home showcased splendid views of Lake Tanganyika and its majestic landscape, which nurtured my artistic sensibility and cultivated my love of freedom ; inspiring my unique perspective while endowing me with strength to achieve my dreams. Our family returned to Kinshasa in 1991, at the end of my father’s military assignment where I continued to evolve as a visual artist.
Since 2006, I have been introspectively working full time in performance art, and as a professional painter, sculptor and stone-carving calligrapher. This facilitates an outlet for my creative and complex renderings allowing me to generate considerably diverse abstract contemporary artwork. I moved to South Africa, Cape Town in September 2007.

Workshop
I attended a 3-day multimedia workshop for performances and installations organised by Spier Contemporary at the Cape Town Art University with art class teacher Jay Pather.
We were taught how to use light and sounds in performances, how to create sounds when you don’t have music instruments, respect timing of different sequences, use contemporary dance movements…

Collective
In September 2008, I have created a group named "Sangisa Sangisa " with young contemporary multidisciplinary artists. This group based in Cape Town – South Africa, is a forum for artistic and cultural exchanges and supports freedom of expression and thought. My friend Many and myself drive this group towards creation of contemporary art mixing cultures and ideas.
We invite everyone who wants to join, painters, graphic designers, sculptors, photographs, video conceptors, dancers, architects, calligraphs...
"Sangism" is the artistic style developed in our collective, which derives its name from “sangisa”, “mix” in lingala (congolese language).

http://www.philippekayumba.blogspot.com/

philippekayumba@gmail.com