African Artist Cristiano Mangovo Exposes Human Horrors, Offers Peaceful Alternative For All Living Creatures Through Complex Visual Narratives
A hybrid female and male figure with a scroll for a head that’s propped up by golden neck rings, extends its four arms outward as if to accept an embrace or an offering. The limbs are sinewy with oversized hands and a contorted foot, and pert, round breasts are accentuated by orange outlines on a yellow shirt. The primary figure holds ladders on each side for other distorted figures to climb in search of knowledge, while a briefcase in the lower right corner represents financial support necessary for human survival. The figure on the top right faces the viewer and dips its hand into a large bowl held up by the scroll which symbolizes knowledge and water, a vital source of life that can also be deadly.
