Safiyah Abdullah

My project is centred around queer iconography and my experience as a queer woman of colour. My sexuality is something that I have suppressed for most of my life and this project gave me the freedom to express it. I explored the human body, focussing on reproductive organs and the ugly side of anatomy. But I also looked at psychological disorders in women and how they are often deemed as “hysteria”. This is something that I don’t find people talk about a lot and was a taboo subject in my family. As I started to reflect on my own mental health and disorder, I used the project to embrace it rather than push it away and feel ashamed. The art I make is not realistic, but is somewhere between surreal and outsider, which is the way that I view life: colourful and messy. I used patterns and shapes that resonate with my culture, and found myself making pieces that are more sculptural, pushing the boundaries of what a “painting” can be. The materials I used are cardboard, acrylic paint, metal and glue