
'Disassociate' is a portrait that depicts the dissociation that happens between mind and body after a traumatic or stressful event. The physical separation of the two canvases represents this internal split - the way trauma can fracture someone’s sense of being whole. The canvases are displayed at varying distances to represent the non-linear nature of the healing process.
Chika Afam (b. 1998) is an expressionist artist of mixed British and Nigerian heritage based in London. Each artwork functions as a reflection of an inner world drawn from thought processes, sensation or lived experience. She is drawn to the multitude of ways intersectionality and societal systems impact the physical and psychological states. As a self-taught artist she works between observation and feeling, using thick impasto and intuitive colour, not to depict the world as it appears but as it is felt. She is often inspired by the permanency of sculpture and capturing physical depth through the layered texture of oil paint or carved stone. Increasingly she draws parallels between physical space between artworks and the interchanging nature of life.