Black Artists Capture Black Lives Matter
It’s hard to find a point of expression when you’re overwhelmed with so many emotions at once. When speaking about the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, it can be extremely difficult to artistically express the sentiments you’d like to convey. The topic is deeply personal and triggering, it’s a reminder of the disregard for Black lives and resurfaces painful memories. Research as presented by The Washington Post showed that ‘anxiety and depression among African American shot to higher rates than experienced by any other racial or ethnic group’ during the week of George Floyd's death. In addition the BBC interviewed Black Brits on the mental impact of George's death where Tarah Welsh expressed that ‘the pain goes back centuries, but much of the hurt is recent.’ With the mental wellbeing of Black people suffering during this period, art has continued to be a means of therapy and expression to help alleviate the discomfort. As a reaction to this, Black artists; Melissa Koby, Rochelle ‘Creative’, Nikkolas Smith, David A, Denny-ow, Adrian Brandon, Rashida Chavis, Jade Yasm, and Titus Kaphar have created thoughtful, emotive and innovative images using various forms of media to memorialise their deaths and the BLM protests that have ensued across the globe By creating in this way, their art activism ensures that each moment goes beyond its definition by collecting and preserving the expressions behind the ongoing movement while we rally towards change.
These artists have captured the variety of emotions felt by grieving Black individuals across the globe. While we are grateful for their talents and ability to express the feelings that sometimes even words cannot capture, we still feel the weight behind the inspiration of their work. We hope that these images serve as reminders that behind every hashtag and within each statistic was a human being with a unique laugh, memories, skills, preferences and other intricacies that creates an individual. The artwork shared and those that exist outside of this small but beautiful collection may even encourage other Black people to use art and its many mediums as an outlet for their own emotions. Let these creations speak when words cannot be found.