Melon Slice plays with repetition, pattern, and form to evoke both cultural memory and sensory experience. The circular composition features twelve stylized heads inspired by masks from the Kuba Kingdom—an artistic and political dynasty based in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Arranged radially and mirrored across a jagged central divide, the heads appear to pulse outward like energy, echoing both ceremonial order and visual rhythm.

The piece takes its name from a fruit—one that conjures summer, sweetness, and the loaded cultural associations of watermelon within African diasporic contexts. The rounded edges and soft pinks of the composition hint at the inside of a melon, while a ring of dark, bead-like marks suggests seeds. But this isn’t literal; Melon Slice is abstraction in conversation with symbolism, allowing viewers to experience a tactile, visceral resonance without being locked into a single narrative.

Within the broader body of work, this piece functions as both a study and a reflection—bridging organic form and ancestral geometry, using abstraction to honor tradition without reenacting it. It’s a meditation on slicing open a form, seeing what’s inside, and letting multiplicity exist at the core.