Otherwise known as “La Furie,” Prisca M. Monnier was born Prisca Munkeni to Zairean parents in Brussels, 1981. She grew up in Kinshasa in the Democratic of the Congo before residing in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In her rather poetic biographical statement on personal site and Afikaris, she says,
"My culture remains, with a memory weakened by the upheavals of history, and whose survival relies only on a handful of people, an oral tradition whose breath is dwindling. Without doubt this is the breeding ground of my art?
“The country that saw me born is not mine, the state that saw me grow up has disappeared, the nation of my passport barely exists. Remain my culture, in memory weakened by the jolts of history, and whose survival is based only on a handful of people, an oral tradition whose breath is dwindling. Without doubt is this the breeding ground of my art, this propensity to want to make dialogue frozen moments, prolong their existence to infinity, force them to speak in an environment saturated with elements, lights. Over time, objects, places or characters through which our identity is forged, dissipate, memories with diaphanous forms. The weight of their senses, frustrations or pride engendered slowly bury themselves in our daily lives, at the gates of oblivion. And memory, stuck in this daily loses the thread: why we cry, why we love, why we live.”
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| warrior, April 2020 Series__secrets and pills__ |
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Rambo, April 2020 Series __secrets and pills__
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“La furie” translates to “rage” in the English language. In Monnier’s compositions enact an evocative supernatural peril. That must be the inner turmoil escaping outward readily explored in her new secrets and pills series and a work from i am. Anger is the negative stereotype every Black woman face—a notion that Black women are too angry, too passionate in that anger. Thus, they are not allowed to be that, that they must retreat into passivity as though still living under slavery where silence would not get a Black woman beaten/whipped/killed by masters. Monnier relishes channeling that anger through art, perception be damned. Warrior and Rambo are explorative self portraits— one a figurative shot and the other a startling close up portrait. Both contain surprising bursts of color (emojis, stickers, icons) on the faces and high waisted shorts. The pose is stiff, the eyes directly gaze out at the viewer, bored, dissatisfied, maybe quietly enraged/disengaged. They both contain fractured reality and breaks into the compositions— warrior’s the portrait’s fingers seeking to emit fire and Rambo’s a sinister red dripping falling above onto the plastered face, a pencil between the lips possibly playing the role of cigarette.
“Ma fille couvre moi ça (My Girl Cover Me Up)” from the Suki series further pushes Monnier’s content. A profiled nude figure aims a plastic water gun. The blond hair spurts upward like a shooting flame as though the gun itself has backfired on the figure, blond hair covers the face (but not her true dark hair), drifting insidiously against her hidden breasts and waist, whispering between her legs, spilling out over her thigh and surpassing the length of her feet. Words and clawed marks are scratched into the walls, similar claws tear into the figure’s leg and back. Beneath her flesh is lies no blood, no internal organs. She appears robotic, devoid of humanity. Yet the placement of a black and white photograph of a smiling Black woman presents a reminder that perhaps the semi-covered nude had a honorable ancestral heritage.
Although the secrets and pills and the Suki series directs anger in a head on collision course, the i am series is much more subdued, quiet in its inception. A seemingly conjured dark skinned Black man exists off centered in an atmospheric space, white billowy smoke twirling about him.
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| From the i am series for Black Attitude Magazine. |
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| Ma fille couvre moi ça - Suki, from the Suki series, photomontage & collage, Inkjet print on baryta paper, 50 cm x 75 cm, Afikaris. |
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| Càtia Mota da Cruz and Prisca Monnier, founders of Black Attitude Paris Magazine photographed by Kelly Costigliolo for Griot Magazine. |
Monnier remarked on her emotional based art and process in an interview on
Afikaris.
“Anger is the strength that pushes me to create. My art is my escape. I generally deal with topics linked to the past, the traditions and cultural weight, genre, identity…
The topics I deal with are very personal and shooting other people would mean that they would interpret it in their own way. For some pictures, it doesn’t matter. I would even say that I need it. However, for some specific pictures, the photographer’s gaze toward the model becomes too heavy to carry. The subjects I deal with being brutal and strong, it could quickly become patronising. I prefer being my guinea pig and then being inspired and taking pictures without any delay nor intermediary. It’s real freedom. Freedom is the final goal in my life as in my art.
I’m a black woman living in an Occidental society. Each picture conveys its message. In a general way, all my photographs describe the foibles of society linked to my experience and the feelings I inherited. I’m the voice my grandmother didn’t have.”
Furthermore, Monnier’s street and fashion photography dissect societal gender roles much showcased in her phenomenal
Dandy Queen series. Brown and dark skin Black women wear tailored vintage suits, ties, and loafers, embracing their natural hair elegantly styled in coifs and pompadours. From the sepia and earthy tones merging past with an Afrofuturist attitude. These are the women who would have otherwise been otherwise uncentered, erased in, granted a platform to be their truest, unique, individualized selves. Monnier was not only featured in independent curator/scholar Shantrelle P. Lewis’s book,
Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, Monnier’s
Dandy Queen portraits traveled to an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.
In addition to exhibits in Bremen, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland, Monnier has shown work at Galeria Afikaris in France, the Goodman Gallery and Maboneng Presinct in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a pop up in New York City, New York, the United States of America.
Currently, Monnier lives between Paris and Marseilles in France and Kinshasa in the Democratic of the Congo. She co-runs Black Attitude Paris Magazine alongside Càtia Mota da Cruz.
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