Creative Activators is the youth voice group for Culture Unlocked (Wigan & Leigh Cultural Education Partnership). Produced by Wigan STEAM, the project aims to enable young people living in Wigan & Leigh to make their voices heard and make decisions about how arts and culture takes place in the borough.
After visiting Zarah Hussain's new exhibition, Creative Activator Zay wanted to share their thoughts about the exhibition.
"The young people involved in Creative Activators visited the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh, on the 24th October. As a young person involved in these amazing groups, I had the pleasure of viewing the new artist exhibit, showcasing Zarah Hussian’s incredible work.
We were told not only about the work of Zarah but also of Zarah herself and her motive for creating her work. It was a pleasure to be able to walk around the gallery and view her work on the walls, listening to the calming therapeutic instrumental; perfectly complimenting the animation of some of her projection work.
Although her artistic animations projected on the wall and ever changing patterned light bow were certainly intoxicating to watch, a few of her paintings had been hung in frames along the walls. Perfectly imperfect artistic works of art, simple and clean.
I very much enjoyed the immersive aspect of the slow music matching with the clean animations projected on the walls. As the patterns created were endless and coloured in ornate patterns, shifting from flowers spiralling to intricate mandalas of meaning and purpose. I believe that Zarah’s work can be interpreted in multiple different ways.
I really liked her projection that kept it’s circular shape but continuously changed in colour, it reminded me of many different things. However, what presented itself most to me was the idea of black and white holes in space either sucking in all the colours that surrounds it or expelling it from its centre. I also believed it to represent the thinning of life as the colour drew further and further from the mid-point.
Overall Zarah’s art reminded me of a disorder called synaesthesia, that allows the person with it to see colours and patterns with sounds and music. This exhibit made me feel relaxed and calm and yet, in some moments it made me anticipate what was to come and sit on edge to see the next assortment of colours and shapes. This colour also means that her art can show anxiety and uneasiness to the future ahead. With the slow movement and cool toned colours to relaxation and mindfulness."
Written by Zay, a member of Creative Activators
If you run a venue, are planning a project, or run an organisation that you think would benefit from some input from the Creative Activators, keep your eyes peeled - we're soon going to be launching an online platform that will enable us to provide more opportunities for young people and further embed youth voice into the sector locally.
In partnership with Culture Unlocked (Wigan & Leigh’s Cultural Partnership)