Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
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His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
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Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
Uncertainty, pain and fear are all part of the human experience. At some point in our lives these emotions will come to the forefront, but how do we deal with them? People express their fears and turmoil in different ways; for some, it manifests in dreams, like the notorious nightmare of all your teeth falling out, while others experience anxiety or high levels of stress.
Fear, turmoil and pain are often sources of inspiration for many artists, who use these innate and evocative emotions to fuel their creative process and inform the art they make. For some, it is a form of therapy, a way to express deep strife or shine a light on the daily struggles their communities face. When you think of the struggling artist, what comes to mind? Financial insecurity, a Parisian apartment with an empty fridge and wooden drafty floors, how cliche! What about the emotional, physical and mental battles many artists face? Art is a visual method of communication and can be used to transform complex human experiences into visual wonders. One such artist, who is able to turn turmoil and pain into a work of art, is Malangatana Ngwenya.
Malangatana Ngwenya
Malangatana Ngwenya was an artist, poet and activist born in Mozambique in 1936. He made art that spoke about the social and political state of Mozambique, about his community and about the change he wanted to see in the world. He grew up in a time when the country was under Portugal’s colonial rule, leading to social uncertainty and struggle, one of the main subjects found in his art.
His painting Final Judgment (Juízo final) is a comment on life under oppressive Portuguese rule. After Mozambique's independence came a short moment of peace which sadly ended a year later when the civil war began between mainly the political parties RENAMO and FRELIMO. Like many in Mozambique, Malangatana lost family members to the violence of the war, people had to flee the land and seek safety in other countries and cities. Malangatana himself noted that, in this period, his “paintings got more violent, more shocking, with reds that were stronger than ever”, using colour as a powerful tool to reflect his emotions.
Turmoil and pain were explicit in many of his works, having lived through colonial oppression and then a 16-year civil war, he experienced violence, death and monstrous behaviour. These experiences manifested themselves in the visual motif of monsters, scenes and figures that represented the personal and political battles he faced in life.
Although it expresses elements of pain, the heart of Malangatana’s work remains peace, justice and community. During his life, he ran workshops for young people, made public art murals, and founded a cultural project in his hometown to champion the arts and the importance of history, culture and tradition. He was the co-founder of the Mozambican Peace Movement and was instrumental in the 1992 peace accord which ended the 16-year civil war, leading to him being named a Unesco artist for peace in 1997.
Case study
Collage was used to explore themes of monsters, resistance against oppression and social change in workshops I ran at a secondary school in South East London for 11-13-year-olds. Taking inspiration from the life and legacy of Malangatana Ngwenya, the young people collaged different types of monsters in their lives that represented their fears and societal issues in the world. Students spoke about a range of subjects, including clowns, spiders, heights, drowning, humanoid science experiments gone wrong, loneliness, racial discrimination, police brutality, the effects of climate change, mistreatment of Muslim women and gender pay gaps.
The students’ anxieties and desires for change were complex and varied; a lot of the ideas they were grappling with in their collages were issues that affect a lot of people, demonstrating a sense of collective care in the classroom. Community, identity, race, death, mental health, animals and gender were recurring themes in the collages made across the five sessions. Often, adults perceive young people as carefree, but they experience many of the same hardships adults do - some are exposed to the turbulence of life at an early age, particularly in an age where information is widely accessible and young people are digesting news at a faster and more uncensored rate than ever before. Regardless of this, many underestimate the emotional and intellectual maturity young people possess as social and political beings who experience life and develop their own views.
Fred Stonehouse
Let me introduce you to the bizarre works of Wisconsin artist Fred Stonehouse. Stonehouse creates surreal and fantastical paintings that poke at the dark and vulnerable psychological condition of the human experience. Although there is an element of jest and in the characters he paints, there is also a vulnerability to them that he presents whilst exploring serious subject matters.
The artist likes to maintain a level of ambiguity in his work, allowing audiences to find their own meaning in his paintings. Describing his work Stonehouse notes that:
“Very much as in a dream, the narratives in my work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life; bits of overheard conversation, glimpsed moments from the personal lives of others, advertising, media, work, etc… I like to think that my work is like a fabric woven from these various threads and that any point in that fabric has an interesting particularity, but when taken together, those points arrive at a compelling psychological whole.”
In doing this, Stonehouse showcases the ways in which artists articulate, challenge and further explore the complexities of their lived experiences to create powerful and emotive works, making something meaningful out of something difficult.
Works by Malangatana Ngwenya can be seen in Tate Modern's permanent collection.
