Pages from my RVJ about Eddy Kamunga Ilunga, his work and his influence to mine. A few points from these pages: Eddy Kamunga Ilunga lives and works in Kinshasa, Congo. He draws from the structural complexity of his hometown and revisits the traditional culture of the Mangbetu people. Referencing different forms of advertisement and photography as well as traditional aesthetics, his paintings are on amalgam of complementary pop culture forms, including music, dance and fashion. The paintings are rich with visual patterns and textures influenced by the vibrant intellectual community that flutist in central Africa. Eddy depicts women with intricate hair styles and elongated heads, their nails and lips painted bright red, blue and purple as they perform daily duties or sit in contemplative thought. Etched into their bodies are electronic microchips and circuits because Congo is the worlds largest exporter of the coltan, a raw material used in computer chips and mobile phones. Eddy plays equal reference to both this modern industry and the traditional culture of the mangbetu people, bringing their vibrant fabrics, symbolic objects combined with dutiful images of the present day. This particular painting shows how you can combine fantasy, history and the present all in one painting. Using bold colours delicately painted and presented. The magic realism in this piece makes you wonder what is true and what your brain deploys as real.