Child It is a canvas by Kende from 2010: mixed media, 80 × 80 cm, a square. It is one of the smallest works in the catalogue. It is now in a private collection.
In the top right-hand corner is a black child, sitting with his knees drawn up. His shadow stretches towards the left and becomes a sort of bench, a dark strip on which he appears to be resting. Further down, in the centre, is the name KENDE in large stencilled letters. They are faded, like a poster that has been left out in the sun for too long. Beneath that, a thin line: ‘It’s worse than you think…’.
‘It’s worse than you think’ is a phrase that Kende used to include in his works almost as a trademark, like Nike’s ‘Just Do It’. It needs no explanation: it’s there, beneath his name, and viewers can interpret it however they like. The same phrase also gives its title to a work from 2009, It’s Worse Than You Think.
The background is beige and ochre, criss-crossed by grey and red streaks running down from the top. In the middle, there are faded, rust-coloured tags and a few dark holes where the surface appears to have been torn. The effect is that of a wall covered in wallpaper, which has been wet and then scratched.
The child is based on a photograph taken in Costa Rica. Kende turned it into a stencil as a tribute to Blek le Rat. The story is told in the entry for Frame in Mind. In Child The image is smaller, adapted to the square format. And here it shares the space with the artist’s name.
Not to be confused with The Child, from 2009: the same child, but a different work.
TITLE: Child
YEAR: 2010
TECHNIQUE: Mixed media on canvas
WIDTH: 80 cm
HEIGHT: 80 cm
THICKNESS: 6 cm
Catalogue: CH10
ORIGINAL: Not available
PRINTS: Not available
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