MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE ARTS

Fact. About 1 in 4 adults in the world live with a mental condition. Strangely, the extent to which mental illness is spoken about in society does a very poor job at reflecting this. The recent celebration of mental health awareness month helped to reignite the conversation that surrounds mental illness.

This post serves as a medium to spread awareness regarding mental illnesses. Many suffering from mental health issues often turn to the arts as a safe haven or even an outlet to share their stories. Having the ownership of a piece of art and using it to tell the world what you’re going through can be a very empowering tool for an artist. It can often be a center stage for people who may at times feel invisible.

In honour of this important cause, A’naala would like to recognize a few renowned artists that lived with mental conditions through out their careers. Despite their illnesses, the artwork that they have produced are some of the most influential pieces in the world.

Edit: The amazing Artsy has provided us with some additional resources just in case you wanted to know a little bit more about the artists included in this post! I'll attach them just below each segment so keep a look out!

 VINCENT VAN GOGH 

Through out his career, Van Gogh was combating frequent episodes of depression as well as anxiety. In fact, one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, Starry night was produced during his voluntary admission into Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum.

Van Gogh turned to painting as a means of therapy. Despite his anguish he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1973;

“…but still there is within me a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest huts, in the dirtiest corner, I see drawings and pictures. And with irresistible force my mind is drawn towards these things.”

Starry Night 1889

For more on Vincent Van Gogh: https://www.artsy.net/artist/vincent-van-gogh

A WEEKEND AT SAATCHI

Hey darlings, Eme here. This weekend I went to my favourite contemporary art gallery in London- Saatchi! Honestly if you haven't been here I suggest you go. It's really a magical place and oh my goodness don't. even. get. me. started. on. the. gift. shop.

Before I go manic, I'll begin with these astonishing portraits by Jelena Bulajic, a 26 year old artist fom Serbia. She creates beautifully detailed pencil drawings- particularly of the aging human face. I think its important for you to know that these detailed drawings are massive. Like 10 feet massive. There is something so spectacular about the detail involved in the folds, the wrinkles and the spots of the aged faces she has depicted. Bulajic describes them as "time turned into shape... unique like a finger print".

Grozda, 2014

CELEBRATE BLACKNESS REVIEW

Hello All, Steph here.

So so so, as a newly enrolled student of the well-talked about University of the Arts London (UAL), I am eager to explore all the art avenues and experiences it has to offer, which must be quite a bit judging from the name of the uni ya know. Anywho, It's October! While yes we're all raving about halloween and what we're going to go dressed as (probably a sexy minion yes?) some of us are out there honouring black history month! And the student union at the university is part of this "us" and thus held a private exhibition at the gorgeous Central Saint Martin college of UAL to that cause. The exhibition showcased a small but energetic collection of work done exclusively by black students of the university, titling the exhibition "Celebrating Blackness".

At the first mention of this, I was buzzing. The uni is known to produce some of the most prominent members of the fashion and art world with an impressive alumni consisting of the likes of Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Zac Posen. So the work was no doubt going to be top level but knowing that it was going to be specifically black-targeted I was excited to see the socio-political context of the work and sure enough there was a yummy splash of just that.

I'll briefly discuss some of the pieces and what I took away from them:

The Art of Cinema

An article by Ekanem Ukpong.

Hi guys, this is my first post for A’naala! I’m obsessed with movies so over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to delve deeper into the art of cinematic storytelling. For me, there are 3 ways to tell a story through film (or as I like to call them layers).     These are Visually, Auditory and Literary. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the first way- visually. Specifically, how to use the movement of an individual to tell a story visually.

                                               

CAROLINE ACHAINTRE

Right so I’m a bit of a London snob and it occurred to me that I never really went to see art galleries in other bits of the UK. So on a faithful day in September I had a little bit of a Eureka moment- Newcastle! It’s about 15 minutes away from my uni and there were apparently some good exhibitions running in galleries there at the moment. I honestly don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before.

I decided to visit the BALTIC centre for contemporary art. Originally I came to see an exhibition called “the playground project” which seemed to be quite popular. But on the visit I was pleasantly surprised by an exhibition which held these incredible textile pieces as well as other works of art by Caroline Achaintre.

GTK: DESOLA KAZEEM

Let me just give you a brief introduction to this new segment we’ve decided to launch on A’naala!

"Get To Know" is going to be a series which gives you a little introduction/ insight into the works of talented people that you may or may not have heard of.

Our first ever GTK subject is Desola Kazeem who has always been known by close friends and family as an avid doodler and an incredibly talented one at that! In this interview she talks about a handful of drawings/ paintings she’s done recently and some of the stories behind them. Enjoy! xx 

-Eme

Young, Inky and Profound: The Young Nigerian Art Scene.

2016 has agreeably been a horrible year, following the deaths of many beloved creative icons and of course the Nigerian recession, but it seems this gloomy year has also shed a bright light on the creative minds of Nigerian Youth. 2016, well for me especially, has had an explosion of creative talent amongst the young Nigerians. Ranging masterpieces from art to photography to music to film and of course poetry/spoken word, 2016 has ushered in a certain aesthetic that I have identified with its artworks throughout the year. It’s no 2010 i’ll tell you that, where cameras were simply an extension of your necklace and painting and drawing were mostly limited to art classes in school. This my friends is 2016 for the young and WOKE and for those embracing their artistic liberties.

Contentro by @O.Sammie on instagram