Baby folklored dragon

Pierre Mukeba's work is concerned with his personal experience as an African-born Australian, including his memories as a refugee and the cross-cultural experience of living in Australia. Themes of violence and politics, as well as family memories, form much of his subject matter.

Drawing is central to his oeuvre, and he draws intensively in sketchbooks. This work comes out of that practice, during a six-month period when he moved back home to his mother's house to live with his extended family. Expressive, direct, and prolific, this drawing is deeply personal and grapples with the complexities of growing up as an African male in Australia.

Coalescing or competing influences, from Christianity, Congolese spirituality, tribal ritual to animism, and the impact of contemporary western influences are found in this drawing. Family, specifically the world of Mukeba’s nine-year-old nephew, whose love of video gaming inspired the figures that populate the drawing. Their fiercely energetic, diving forms burst forth from a red-faced mask.