Eloghosa Osunde
Nigerian, b.1995
Bronzxiety
2016
Nigeria
Photograph
“Color This Brain.”
In Eloghosa Osunde’s series Color this Brain, Osunde places a model within different landscapes and colors to portray Osunde’s neurodivergence. The work communicates different aspects of mental illness, with each seemingly a character of its own. The chosen work represents anxiety, as both figures are in uncomfortable poses, engulfed in the hue of bronze. Representations of mental health are usually grounded within reality, but Osunde taps into the fantastical nature of mental illness, as disorders such as anxiety distort how one perceives the world. Here, the artist represents herself through these figures. The colorful lenses are the mental illness worlds she travels through. Different emotions create different perceptions of reality, each one in its own hue. Osunde is also making commentary on how through stigma, mental health issues aren’t seen as real. This photograph destigmatizes and normalizes mental illness, for encouraging viewers to talk about their mental health.
Tyrese Duncan-Moore ’22
Bibliography
Adewuya, Abiodun O., and Roger O. A. Makanjuola. “Social Distance Towards People with Mental Illness in Southwestern Nigeria.” Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 42, no. 5 (May 2008): 389–95. doi:10.1080/00048670801961115.
This article is focused studying the othering of those with mental illness are more likely to face the more intimate they are with a neurotypical person in Nigeria.
Gureje, Oye, Victor O. Lasebikan, Olusola Ephraim-Oluwanuga, Benjamin O. Olley, and Lola Kola. 2005. “Community Study of Knowledge of and Attitude to Mental Illness in Nigeria.” British Journal of Psychiatry 186 (5). Cambridge University Press: 436–41. doi:10.1192/bjp.186.5.436.
A research-based study with the intention of finding out why there is negative stigma attached to mental illness within Nigeria.
Reuter, Peter Robert, Shannon Marcail McGinnis, and Kim Eleanor Reuter. 2016. Public health professionals’ perceptions of mental health services in equatorial guinea, central-west africa. Pan African Medical Journal 25 : 236.
A study that concluded that there isn’t enough energy put towards mental health system to provide enough help for communities within Central-West Africa by working with professionals in the sphere of public health.
“‘Color This Brain’ by Eloghosa Osunde.” Wildness. Accessed May 13, 2019. https://readwildness.com/wilds/2018/01/22.
This article features a review of the series interpreted by a poet and goes into detail on the effect that this series may have on a viewer. The colors used in this series have a deep impact on the reviewer.
