With the Tender Arts Nigeria presenting Arts-in-Medicine exhibition in Lagos recently, there is hope for the sick to use the arts as a therapy, reports Edozie Udeze.
They are called the Tender Arts Nigeria. And their primary aim is to help the sick recapture themselves and regain their self-esteems. Led by Kunle Adewale, an artist, the group has just staged a successful art exhibition in Lagos where 600 art works were displayed. The exhibition was the inaugural edition of what has been termed Arts in-Medicine Project. According to Adewale, the sole coordinator of the project, the idea came to him many years ago. It was triggered by a trip he made to the United States of America during which he attended programmes where emphasis were placed solely on how to give back to the society.
When he now returned to Nigeria, he began the idea of visiting different hospitals in Lagos. These patients include the sickle cell patients, the mentally sick and those living with cancer. In the process, he taught them how to paint, how to use the innate talents given to them by God to recreate their lives and find meaning once more. In the end, the process produced 600 artworks of different forms, styles and experimentations. “We did this through engagement between medical practitioners and patients with the sickle sell anemia, cancer and those with mental health conditions”, Adewale explained. He said further, “even those words of encouragement on the walls and those as footnotes of the works were written by the patients”
While the works were on display at Terra Kulture, Lagos, most guests were astounded to see the amazing pieces of art works done by these sick people. They came mostly in bright colours of hope and encouragement. The colours of yellow, blue and the magenta indeed predominated, showing that truly, the patients wish to be well again. Even in their despair, in their sorry state of health problems, they hope to get well. The works show artistic dexterity with deep professional touches only seen in the class of works of most artists in the mode of the masters.
“So, everything they did here is interrelated, for both the patients, the life-givers and others were involved”, he said. This show that no matter a person’s condition in life, once he can be well guided, he can do many tasks that seem impossible to him. In doing this, they were also able to connect deeply into the patient’s soul. That way it was easy for them to resonate and connect with their artistic expressions. “One of these is this portrait of hope, imbued with those elements of survival and encouragement.”
There were also some artists from different parts of the world who donated their works to enrich the exhibition. These works equally hinged on hope, on recovery, on achievements and some other aspects of positive themes to help a sick person overcome his condition. “These works were given to us free-of-charge. Even the paintings here are not for sale”, Adewale submitted. “Once this public display is over, we’ll return all of them to the different hospitals where the patients who did them are. It will be unfair to sell them. In fact it will do them more harm if we do not return these works back to them”, he said.
Even as it is now, the patients, mostly the mental patients, have begun to attach some interest to the works. They hope that seeing them everyday will help to lively it up for their souls, for their mental wellbeing. These works, with these bright colours of hope help in their recovery process.
“Despite crises, despite challenges, you will be amazed to see the zeal in these patients; their eagerness to finish doing these works and then hope to do more very soon. You see these faces; they are like one gazing through the future to see what there is for tomorrow. You needn’t tell them what exactly to draw or paint. The ideas are there in their brains. Just give them the go-ahead and you see the profound works they’ll produce. For the mentally sick ones, their works harp on the issues revolving inside their heads. But they hope also to get out of it tomorrow”.
There’s one peculiar work of mother and child, looking forward to a brighter future. This work, according to Adewale specifically addresses that love and bond between mother and child and this is one of those feelings the patients hope to have or experience one more time. “This particular patient when he got to the psychiatric hospital, Yaba, Lagos, was in a terrible state of mind. But by the time we got him into this work last week, his mood changed. He turned out to be one of the best artists we have here today. Of course, they wouldn’t know they have this talent. Some who knew did not have someone to guide them. So, this guy came out with this amazing work. It is good, it is beautiful. With this, we have in fact, changed their normal routine of waking up everyday, being bored and all that. Now they can’t wait to do another round of painting, for it helps to buckle them up and make their moods bright and more hopeful. This is indeed therapeutic”, he decided.
The first of this experiment had only thirty patients being involved. But with this current edition, 60 of them were engaged. In the end 600 works were done to justify the huge interest these patients have in this marriage between arts and medicine. Some of the patients also wish to join the Tender Organization when they have left the facility. For them, it is a way of showing how grateful they are to those who helped them find their feet again. This is one of the ways they can be re-integrated into the society.
One of the works was titled Drug World. It was done by a mental patient advising people to desist from drugs. “It is wrong to do drugs”, the work informed. “If you do so, it’ll spoil your life; it’ll damage your person and set you back many years”, the message read. “we told them that you can do it in the world without drugs. In fact, you’ll be a better person, achieving higher goals when you stay away from drugs”, Adewale said.
How this was achieved
“It wasn’t an academic exercise”, Adewale said. “We only guided them and where necessary encouraged them to know that this is what they can do. It is about self-expression and your ability to rediscover yourself even in the face of all odds. You won’t get the best out of them, when you just tell them what to draw or paint. When we gave them that freedom, it helped us to connect to their personality, their beings. Through this programme many have been able to develop their artistic instincts. These people mostly did not know what they had. Today, it is for their own good and we want to discover and develop more talents so that when they get well they’ll have something to fall back on”.
For now, the project is on break. But once the exhibition is over, they will turn attention to the patients to produce more works. Adewale and his group were optimistic that with the addition of music and other areas of the art, the project will go places to reduce the tension in the patients. “Through our programmes they told us some of the things they never told their doctors and therapists. We really engaged them in a way to help them let off the steam. Then they told them their stories; how they were raped; how they lost their senses. Some of these stories, as you can see, have been put into painting. They are expressive of their inner beings; the things they have gone through in life”. Even some of them attempted suicide in the process. It was while they told their stories that the deeper idea of what to draw came out.
For now, the United States Consulate, Lagos is involved in the project in order to make it get better attention. At the opening ceremony, it was clear that this project was borne out of selflessness. The team is ever eager to see its usefulness permeating the society. At the moment also many nursing students, medical students and young people have signed in to be part of this project.