Chef de Mulu

In Jungle, Chef de Mulu fuses Neo-Expressionism and Symbolism into an intense, dreamlike visual language. At its core lies the destruction of the tropical rainforest – a living environment to which the artist, through his roots in Malaysia, remains deeply connected.

The composition is carried by luminous yellow and deep green. While green stands for life, fertility, and the natural cycle of the jungle, yellow marks the wounds inflicted from outside. In some cultural contexts associated with death and destruction, it appears here as a deliberate reversal of the “colour of life” motif: what should radiate vitality instead signals loss. Felled or burned trees, blackened trunks and scorched areas point to deforestation and slash-and-burn practices – consequences of global demand for raw materials and agricultural goods.

The symbols converge into a dark allegory. The floating trunks at the centre of the painting show that they are no longer part of the natural cycle. Torn out, suspended, and estranged from their organic surroundings, they become reduced to mere objects. No longer embedded in life’s rhythm but severed and repurposed, they embody the commodities of our consumer society – signs of a desire that disrupts and fatally undermines the survival of the jungle. A chainsaw appears as a foreign body in the image, emblematic of the immediate tools of destruction. And in the horned, flame-bearing figure on the right emerges the vision of an exploitative force that strips the jungle not only of its substance but also of its spiritual dimension.

With its raw, gestural brushwork, stark contrasts and emotional intensity, the painting is firmly rooted in Neo-Expressionism. At the same time, it bears strong Symbolist traits: it is not a literal depiction, but a condensed vision of destruction, exploitation, and the loss of a mythical, living nature.

Thus Jungle becomes a powerful outcry – a manifesto against the exploitation of tropical landscapes and a poetic warning of the loss of their spiritual essence.