Technique: Ink and Watercolous
Support: paper 220mg
Size in cm: 21x29.7
First stage UK, 2024, second stage Italy 2025
Kisangani in a Monkey
In the artwork City in Monkey, a fragment of Kisangani, one of Congo’s oldest colonial cities, erupts uncontrollably from the screaming mouth of a chimpanzee. This haunting image is not just surreal: it is a cry for memory. A city expands, relentlessly devouring what was once dense equatorial forest, home to the very creature that now holds it, broken, in its jaws.
Part of Michele di Erre’s Urbanimal Collection, City in Monkey connects directly to his Primate Collection (explore it here). This piece is a bridge between two bodies of work: one that paints apes as witnesses of urban collapse, the other that places them inside the urban body as reluctant hosts.
Chimpanzees once thrived around Kisangani, where forest, river, and human life intertwined. But deforestation, mining, and unchecked urban growth have exiled them. This artwork transforms the monkey into a totem of protest: both beast and land, captive and carrier.
Drawn in stark black ink, this piece is both urgent and timeless. Each original is signed, shipped globally with certificate of authenticity.
For collectors who seek meaning in myth, and myth in truth.
Part of the Urbanimal Collection, this ink-supported scene subverts scale to interrogate our relationship with cities: are they carriers of life, or cages upon living? Signed and certified, Puyang on Stork evokes quiet wonder, ancestral memory, and ecological hope.
💫 2. Emotional Impact
This delicate artwork may awaken:
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A sense of gentle awe and cultural reverie
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Reflection on how cities can be nurtured, like nests
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Nostalgia for ancestral myths and ancient civility
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Curiosity toward the fragile bond between nature and built environment
🎁 3. Who Is It For? (Gift Suggestions)
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Lovers of ink drawing and minimalistic line art
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Fans of Chimpanzee, Africa, Congo.
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Collectors of surreal, narrative-based contemporary art
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Theorists and thinkers in urban ecology and cultural heritage
💡 4. Why Invest in Original Art?
An original piece like this offers:
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A signed, certified artwork that carries story and spirit
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A rare blend of cultural symbol with personal narrative
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A timeless, non-replicable artistic object
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A meaningful addition that sparks dialogue and reflection
🧭 5. Introduction to the Urbanimal Collection
Urbanimal conjures a world where animals bear the marks of cities, and cities rest upon animal backs. Each piece is handcrafted in black ink (often with mixed media), embodying ecological thought and mythopoetic storytelling. It reframes urban life as a living ecosystem, fragile, symbolic, resilient. Owning one means bringing that interplay of nature and culture into your home.
Urbanimal is my way of saying that nature doesn’t disappear, it adapts, resists, and reappears through new forms. And this piece is one of them.
This series symbolically and surreally explores the cohabitation of animals with an urban landscape. Here the ecological approach that distinguishes human/nature relationship is central by inviting us to perceive the earth as a living entity, as a large garden in which all the ignored fragments of the landscape offer us opportunities for regeneration. This was inspired by Gilles Clément's concept of "Third Landscape." All works are signed and certified.
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