Embodying Art
After being diagnosed with a chronic illness, British artist Adelaide Damoah quit her job to devote herself to her true passion: painting. For her works, she has turned her body into a "living paintbrush”.
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00:00Full body contact in the name of art.
00:04More later on what British Ghanaian artist Adelaide Damoa's work has to do with chronic endometriosis.
00:11But first, why does she use her body as a paintbrush?
00:16Painting in and of itself is an embodied process.
00:21And it's a process that I always fully immerse myself in.
00:27And it's always been something that I turn to for comfort.
00:31Carrying out performances is also something that is a powerful way for me to reclaim my own body.
00:40And to do something and produce something that hopefully impacts other people.
00:45Adelaide used to apply the paint directly to her body.
00:48But today she uses a different technique.
00:50In her studio in London, she uses her arms to create a transparent image on paper and then sifts the pigments onto it.
00:59I use sheer butter, which is from Ghana.
01:03It's actually good for the skin, so I'm not destroying my skin by making work.
01:07But most importantly, in terms of the look of the work, I just find it far more interesting than using paint.
01:15The Somerset House Arts Centre, London, October 2023.
01:19As part of the African Art Fair, the works of 170 artists from African countries and the diaspora are on display.
01:28Adelaide is represented as well.
01:30Why is her presence in this exhibition so important?
01:36This fair feels so important for black artists, because so many of us, you won't find us at Frieze,
01:42you won't find us at some of the other major art fairs.
01:46So this is an amazing opportunity to have work showcased in front of an international audience,
01:53in the centre of the art world, really, in London.
01:56And it feels like home for me. It's just very special.
02:02Born and raised in London to Ghanaian parents, Adelaide studied applied biology and worked in the pharmaceutical industry.
02:11Why did she decide to become a full-time artist?
02:16I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2000, and so the illness was ailing me on and off.
02:23The advantage of the illness was that it gave me time to really delve into my true love, which was art.
02:28So by the time we got to 2005, people started buying the work, and by this time I was on long-term sick.
02:34And then in 2006 I made the decision to leave that in the past, as in the pharmaceutical industry, and focus 100% on art.
02:42And how has Adelaide managed to cope with the chronic abdominal pain of endometriosis and engage with her illness artistically?
02:53Because of the pain, and my experience with the pain, that kind of acted as some kind of friction that has propelled me to move forward.
03:06So there's this constant fight with my body to remain strong so that I can keep doing the things that I do.
03:14During one of her regular visits to Ghana, Adelaide found photos of her forebears, which she incorporates into her art with symbols, texts or objects such as lace from the colonial era.
03:26She now works mainly with the cyanotype technique.
03:31How does it work?
03:33It's like a really old photographic process where you paint the, you have to mix these two chemicals together,
03:39and then you paint the paper or whatever surface you're using with it, and you have to let it dry in the dark, and then you expose it to UV light using a negative.
03:50This process always produces blue images. Adelaide has developed her own technique to make her pictures so colourful, but it's a well-kept secret.
04:00Her body is an important tool in her paintings and performances. In her early career, she would never have thought, despite her illness, she'd be able to live off her art.
04:11The fact that I get to do this, and this is my life, is ridiculous. It's like a dream come true, honestly.
04:18Adelaide Demoha sees her art as a journey of healing, which is also meant to encourage the viewer to reflect.
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