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ArtistVibrant hand-painted Congolese popular art in the style of Shula. Mami Wata appears as a beautiful mermaid seated in a tranquil lagoon. She has long, straight black hair, golden earrings, intricate white body patterns, and a warm, confident smile as she turns to look directly at the viewer. Her upper body is human, and her lower body is a shimmering fish tail with pink and gold fins. The mermaid paints on a large upright white canvas. Across the top of the canvas is handwritten French text: “QUAND LA SIRÈNE S’AMUSE” and beneath it “SITE INTERNET WWW.SIRENE-MONGA-NKOLO.COM.” The canvas is filled with childlike line drawings: stick figures, huts, birds, fish, and abstract symbols, suggesting magical communication and modern mythology. Bright rainbow brushstrokes cascade down the left side of the canvas. She holds a painter’s palette with vivid red, yellow, blue, and black pigments, and a long paintbrush raised in her right hand. Around her in the shallow water float lily pads and orange flowers. In front of her are a green wine bottle, an empty glass, a decorated jar, and a small plate of food, as if offerings to the water spirit. The background is a lush tropical riverbank with flowering plants, reeds, and overhanging trees reflected in calm blue water. Rich saturated colors, glossy acrylic texture, folk-art perspective, bold outlines, slightly weathered canvas edges, humorous and mystical atmosphere, combining traditional African spirituality with contemporary internet culture. Vertical composition, highly detailed, authentic painted-on-canvas look.
Shula is one of the best-known painters associated with the vibrant tradition of popular painting in Kinshasa. Active since the mid-1990s, he belongs to a generation of urban artists who combined folklore, humor, social commentary, and contemporary life in brightly colored acrylic paintings on canvas. These works often draw upon the imagery of Mami Wata, the widely revered water spirit whose cult extends across West and Central Africa and throughout the African diaspora.
In Quand la sirène s’amuse (When the Siren Amuses Herself), painted in 2002, Shula depicts Mami Wata as both supernatural being and modern artist. Executed in acrylic on canvas and measuring 88.9 × 81.3 cm (35 × 32 inches), the work exemplifies the polished surfaces, vivid colors, and direct storytelling typical of Congolese popular art.
At the center of the composition, the siren sits half-submerged in a tranquil lagoon. Her scaled tail curls beneath her, and her long black hair falls like a dark river down her back. She turns toward the viewer with a confident smile while painting on a large white canvas. Across the top she writes her own internet address, humorously placing an ancient deity within the emerging digital world. The canvas is filled with simple drawings of people, huts, birds, and fish, recalling both children’s sketches and symbolic diagrams.
Around her float lily pads and blossoms. A bottle of wine, an empty glass, a decorated jar, and a plate of food rest in the water like offerings. Reeds, flowers, and arching trees frame the secluded setting. Playful and sophisticated, the painting presents Mami Wata as a self-aware creator who paints and promotes her own image, linking traditional spiritual beliefs with popular culture and the early internet age.
