Bananier belongs to the artist’s series of self-portrait busts.

Unlike his sculpture Jannah or the other plaster works that Mehdi-Georges has produced, this bust boasts a more noble material. Glass, worked using craft techniques, gives this piece a refinement that contrasts with the kitsch of its pop colours.

Once again, as in the case of Jannah, the artist is playing with ideas of exoticism. We can see borrowings from the colonial imagery of the “noble savage”, widely portrayed during the first half of the 20th century by the Banania chocolate drink brand, or by the icon Josephine Baker in her early days.

The Medusa’s mane of hair features a horn of plenty which, like the tufted plant of the Jannah oasis, locates the work firmly within the context of a mythical garden that recalls Eden.

Marie Papazoglou