In Petit garçon dans le bac à sable, King Paris invites us to meet the child within ourselves, the fearless dreamer who once believed that death was only an imaginary place and that monsters could be friends.

The installation depicts a young boy, his body painted entirely white, standing calmly in a sandbox filled with black sand. Upon his head rests a playful monkey mask, the kind a child might wear while lost in imagination, pretending to speak with unseen creatures. Surrounding him are twelve white skulls of deceased animals that would be found in Africa, silent witnesses to his game, perhaps the companions he has paused his play with to greet the viewer.

This piece is both haunting and tender, capturing the innocence of curiosity before fear was taught. The boy becomes a mirror of our former selves, the version unafraid of the dark, unburdened by the learned anxieties of adulthood.

For King Paris, the work also plays with perception and psychology. To some, the scene may feel ritualistic or “spiritual,” reflecting how Western conditioning often misreads African symbols and traditions as mystical or dangerous. In truth, Petit garçon dans le bac à sable is about reclaiming that misunderstood space, where imagination, spirituality, and play coexist freely, just as they did in childhood.