"M Chien" by Top Kabana

"M Chien" (50x40cm). Top Kabana. 2024. Acrylic on canvas. Original Piece.

"M Chien" is a painting that presents a reflection on contemporary alienation through an image loaded with symbols and metaphors. In it, an individual has his face hidden by a screen, in which the figure of a young man appears with a defiant attitude, characteristic of the imagery associated with urban gangs. This young man, with his hands making the "M" symbol, refers to the city of Marseille, a place loaded with connotations of rebellion and marginality. The screen, as a barrier between the person and their environment, not only hides their face, but also becomes a mental prison, a kind of filter through which the individual sees and is seen, but always conditioned by the content. that consumes.

The individual is tied by a chain that, inscribed with the word "chien" (dog in French), symbolically links him to an automated thought, just like an animal enslaved by its owner. The chain, attached to the screen, suggests how contemporary digital connection has become a form of invisible control, restricting freedom of thought and behavior. The waves emitted by the screen, which invade your mind, are an allusion to the omnipresent influence of social networks and viral content, which make us prisoners of a common ideology, often superficial or distorted. This ideology is manifested in the idealization of figures from the periphery, such as the "neighborhood boy", whose image has been romanticized in the collective imagination.

Around him, the elements that make up the scene reinforce the criticism of this reality. The eyes that watch from everywhere represent the constant scrutiny to which we are subjected in the digital age, while mobile phones, always present, are the watchers that do not stop recording and recording. The serpent, sinuous and coiled like a flower, symbolizes temptation, the seductive attraction of simplistic ideologies that are presented to us as easy solutions, but which in reality lead us to a life of alienation.

This painting is, ultimately, a visual and conceptual experiment that seeks to address a complex and often contradictory reality. In trying to capture the flow of thoughts and internal tensions that arise from our interaction with the digital world, I have opted for an abstract approach, a kind of figurative distortion that allows us to reflect on reality in a less literal, but perhaps deeper way. In this way, what is presented is not simply an image, but an invitation to question how the media and social representations configure, condition and limit us.

Top Kabana