Ray Monde
Dec 1, 20211 min
What is the symbolism of a crown that is upside down? It’s stitched into my trousers and jeans. It's embroidered on my shirts. I wear it as a ring on my right hand. And of course, it’s signed on the corner of every piece of artwork.
On early artworks the crown signature was upright with a small circle above it. This was inspired by the orb which appears on royal crowns. The orb is called a monde, French for world, and represented all the domains that a monarch ruled.
Initially, it was simply a reference to my name Ray Monde – with a crown and monde as a signature.
I realised the upright crown and monde was too close a reference to the crown which appears in a lot of Basquiat’s works.
By flipping the crown upside down, it symbolises imminent change and, in a way, power on paper without any true authority.
When upside down, the pointy bits of the crown form the letter M for Monde. Then by layering on the idea that the crown is made of paper, a paper crown, it speaks to creating something from nothing, rather than inherited status.
And that’s the story behind the signature on all of my artworks – work by Ray Monde.