Évolué + Variants

The term Évolué refers to the growing native middle class in Belgian Congo, now Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1945 and 1960. A system that formally allowed select native Africans or Asians the luxury to education with the terms and conditions of adhering to European behaviours and values which actually caused more negative effects than positive. In his initial work ‘family at home?’ he highlighted how families would be isolated from their social dynamics and cultural heritage roots.

This assimilation would be the sacrifice or trade off for these individuals to receive an education and be allowed low level jobs within society. The archive reference image of the family was actually staged, acting as an advert of a family that represented an institutionalised social class. The product of the colonial politics of identification and differentiation. This work exhibits the way in which their physical presence is absent from their environment, causing intangible gaps in their environment that went on to effect future generations.

The further works of these are called variants, re-interpreting the original image in alternative compositions and colour combinations.
Referencing cutting room floor excerpts, and the way in which these would be used within 1950s film editing techniques.
Combining excerpts with new focus points and exploring how these elements interrelate with each other to build new forms.

[1] Évolué, Family at home, [2], Variant 01,
[3] Variant 02, [4] Variant 03, [5] Variant 04,
[6] Variant 05, [7] Moms iphone, [8] Variant 07, [9] Variant 08, [10] Variant 09, [11] Variant 10,
[12] Variant 11, [13] Run a man down, [14] Évolué, Family at home sticker