While Luc Andrié has made a name for himself over the last ten years with paintings that come very close to obliterating the face of the white man in all his ridiculous glory, in his laughable incarnation of patriarchal power, where each time a single color almost completely absorbs the man’s visage, it is important to recall here that the artist began his career as a documentary filmmaker who focused on neocolonialist Africa. Even if Le garde could have been lifted from a surveillance network, the reminder of the artist’s roots before his shift into pictorial fiction is important. Although the scene was done from life—a guard in an exhibition gallery in Maputo, Mozambique—viewers are left in doubt, not knowing if they are facing a piece of fiction or documentary footage and if the guard is aware of the camera observing him or not.
*1954, Pretoria, lives and works in La Russille (VD)
