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Pigment Explosion — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Well a lot has happened, a few years ago, when I was 42 to be exact I recalled a childhood trauma, and as a result I started makng music, I have made over 60 albums, but released 6 under Spotify and Apple Music using my Bengali name SHONCHI

I now can play the piano, bass, acoustic and electric guitar, and a bit of tabla and Zitar.

It's been an amazing journey and I have performed in Malaysia, Singapore, London, Brussels and Berlin. My next gig is at L'Archiduc in Brussels.

I also received an Arts Council grant to launch my book the Tree People, will be updating the site with images.

Have yet to post the work I did with the Rohingya as a volunteer, I made a film about the refugees entitled Rohingya Lives Matters.

At the moment I am getting ready to do my book launch of The Tree People at Brick Lane book shop on 14th July 2022.

I am also exhbiting my Ukraine work at Wulder Gallery in Belgium, have to post that work too.

It's a horrific and uncertain time which makes the arts more crucial than ever. Lots of new work to post which I haven't got round to doing because I post new work on instagram at Shonchi369

Finally, major news just found out that I am doing a project with garments workers in Jordan, Ethiopia and Cambodia, I will be documenting their stories, I can't wait.

2020 - Fight or Flight

Pigment Explosion — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Just recevied news that Pigment Explosion has been awarded an Arts Council grant towards our next project Fight or Flight which will be used to fund a multi media project related to C-PTSD.

Later this year I will be speakimg at conference at Rome about the issue of Precarity and sharing my work, too.

2020 will see the publication of The Tree People which I have been working on for 23 years on and off - that is a massive achievement for me. But my motto has always been finish what you start.

The last few years have been busy for Pigment Explosion. In 2018 I went to the Rohignya refugee camps in Coxs Bazar as a volunteer and it was a very intense and life changing experience. I took hundreds of photos and shot footage which I turned into a film Rohingya Lives Matter, which has now been screened in London and Brussels. The screenig was funded by the Arts Council. I am continuing to make work related to the Rohingya until they get the justice they deserve.

Since 2016 I started making music and 2020 sees the release of my first album Denial, I signed with Pulse Soundworks and can play keyboards and guitar now. I can't image life without making music now. So this is indeed a radical development in my practice.

May 2020 see the continued growth and development of pigmentexplosion, it's been 20 years now that my organisatiom has been going and that is something to celebrate.

Mental Health 4 All

Pigment Explosion — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It has been an intense summer the most intense development has been the sudden production of music, now I have produced 170 pieces of music and 18 albums or more. And I started making the music aftrer I recalled memories of being sexually abused as a child.

It has been a life changing experience.

This year I performed at Camp Cosmic in Leipzig working with DJ Princess Century, I have also been working with my good friend Richard Applegate and more recently Celt Islam who wants to collaborate.

I do everything in Logic and I have a little keyboard and play, my fingers are very long, I think I was meant to play!

This October I received an Arts Council grant and completed my Mental Health 4 All project, a series of mental music events with projected visuals, spoken word events, reading from my new book Dented (2017 Chipmunka Press), and an exhibition of my scrolls across Malaysia, London and Brussels.

It was intense and exhausting, but Mental Health remains a big problem globally so we still have to try to instigate change and get people talking.

Pigment Explosion presents new songs and poems on 30th December in Singapore as part of a wider Mental Health 4 All campaign

Pigment Explosion — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I am very excited to be performing new songs composed between March and December 2016 (120 and rising) in Singapore. All these songs relate to mental pain and it seems like a logical progression for me to to go into music, I was performing and playing the harmonium from a young age, but stopped abruptly when a lady atteneding one of my performances told me I lacked talent.

In 2009 when I was going into psychosis the music returned but I dismissed it as a mental aberration, now in 2016, after recalling a childhood traumatic memory, there has been a musical unleashing. At first I was sending my music to people I know in the industry, then I grew frustrated and watched a youtube tutorial online and after that I have produced 20 tracks so I have my first album: Pain = Alchemy = Transformation. It has been an intense experience.

Each album will be a bespoke item with artwork, poems and mental health messages and I hope when people listen to the music it wil alleviate their mental distrss and help them not feel alone or isolated in their torment. I plan 10 albums comprising 10 songs on each Pain=Alchemy=Transformation part 1-10.

I have four performances lined up in Singapore and London and I am thrilled, if not a little apprehensive, about singing live in public again, but music does have a palliative impact on my brain, it is more potent and healing than my art.

I plan to combine music, film, poems, and art as part of my Mental Health 4 All campaign to promote global mental health awareness and ameliorate mental suffering through art and music, not pills and doctors.

Not everyone has access to first class mental health provision so what do they do? We need to teach basic mental health to all and also not be afraid of mental illnes or psychosis.

I find that psychosis has led to a purging of mental pain and unblocking, but it is a visceral state and scary if you do not know what is going on or how to not make it full blown. I have learnt how to manage my mental health through art and music, sleep and diet.

There is huge stigma related to mental health in Asia, so there is much work to be done, not just in Europe.

On 9th Dec 2016 I spoke at the House of Commons about matneral mental health and urged for a national free maternal mental health line, but really I would like to see a global free mental helath line that is accessible to all global citizens.

That's the aim.

That's the dream.

I am waging a mental health insurrection and have many supporters globally - it is not possible to do this work alone but I am doing my very best to raise global mental health awareness.

Creating a scroll with the Malaysian Mental Health Association

Pigment Explosion — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

After speaking at Westmisnter and participating in the Tomorrow's Child exhbition I have since launched my Mental Health 4 All campaign. Speaking at the 2nd Asia Pacific Conference on Mental Health in Singapore was a great honour. Dr Ang at the Malaysian Mental Health Association invited me. I met many like minded individuals and learnt about what was happenng in the rest of South East Asia in the realm of mental health.

It has now been confirmed that I will give two talks, screen my fllm White Wall and also show examples of my work at Club Heal and SACs in Singapore. I can continue my mental health campaigning, disseminate my knowledge and hopefully a domino effect will ensure. If I educate one person, they in turn educate another.

It was also exciting to work on A Day in My Head, creating a book cover is always a challenge, but my design seems to have gone down well - phew!

I was also delighted to hear that my letter will be published in the book The Recovery Letters, which I hope will help many people suffering mental torment in 2017

I have to edit Dented, my second volume of poems, it will be published next year. And I hope to complete The Tree People by 2017, my first chidren's book, it's taking forever. My publisher wants me to make little films of me reciting my poems, too.

I am giving a talk and screening my film at Silverfish Books in Kuala Lumpr and another talk and screening at Uni Tech Mara, too in October and November 2016

But what I am really excited about is the new scroll I created with patients at the Malaysian Mental Health Assocation, it was intense making it on one month, but it was a great collaboration and I am so happy MMHA commissioned the work. They have now asked me to make some pilot films related to mental health which I start shooting in November/December in Malaysia and London working with the filmmaker Matthew Lynch.

I am preparing to speak at the Houses of Parliamet again in Decemer about maternal mental health

It's not easy managing everything, my mental health, the children, my work, sometimes I feel that everything is stacked against me. I get frustrated and disillusioned with the art world and fed up with social media and just want to pack it all in, feelng dissatisfied with everything that I do. It seems life as an artist is destined to be a struggle. But then I just pick myself up and trudge on. Glass half full rght. I took my children to Ilham Gallery, great show, great space.

Instil art and culture in nascent minds and make them curious about the world. I think my main problem is I have so much in my head and I cannot keep up with the ideas so I can feel defeated when I see the long lists of what I want to do getting longer. It seems relentless and never ending.

Failure is part of the learning curve though, you just have to keep going despite all the set backs you face. Because there are hardly any prominent Bangladeshi female artists, so the few of us who are trying to make art and say someting we have to keep goong no matter what.

7th June House of Lords debate and 10th June Rich Mix screening and artist's talk is looming

Pigment Explosion — Thu, 26 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It is rather frantic at my end with last minute preparations for the House of Lords debate on 7th June. I designed an invite last night and still feel there is a great deal to do.

This week I met with the Malaysian Mental Health Association in Kuala Lumpur. I pitched a documentary, book and scroll project idea to the President, Vice President and Dr Ang. This region is very behind in terms of mental health there is a great deal of work that needs to be done. They all seemed excited by my ideas and I have to write a proposal in the coming days for Dr Ang to present to the Ministry of Health.

I am very much looking forward to coming to London and also giving my artist's talk at Rich Mix where I will be discussing how I have used art to keep well. I will also be reading new writing related to mental health and screening White Wall, the animation film that I was commissioned to make by the UK Film Council.

The Houses of Parliament exhibition is now scheduled for 27th June in the morning, I have just submitted my biog and sent off the high res image for the website.

I also have good news I was awared an Ars Council grant for my next scroll project. I am planning to create a scroll with women suffering from maternal mental health problems. It is something that could be replicated in other parts of the world. I do believe that art does have a palliative impact on the mind and certainly helped me get through my own mental health battles

House of Lords Debate 7th June and Tomorrow's Child Exhibition 27th June

Pigment Explosion — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I am very excited to announce my participation in the House of Lords debtate on 7th June hosted by my good friend Baroness Helena Kennedy. The debate will deal with the maternal mental health of the mother on the unborn foetus. We will be discussing perinatal care not just in the UK but also globally.

I will also be reading from my book, Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too.

It will take place in committee room 4a at the House of Lords from 6.30 - 8pm

Perinatal experts from all over the country will be attending.

I am also very excited to be participating in the Tomorrow's Child exhibition at the Houses of Parliament on 27th June, the original date was 6th, but it has been moved. I will be showing a montage of images related to maternal mental health.

On 10th June I will be giving an artist's talk at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green Road, London about art, motherhood and madness and screening my film White Wall (UK Film Council 2010). The talk starts at 7.30pm and the venue is upstairs.

I am also planning a scroll workshop with mothers with maternal mental health problems, more on this later.

Oyez publishers, Brick Lane Book Shop and KAOS

Pigment Explosion — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There have been some exciting developments with my new Asian publishers Oyez. I was very nervous pitching The Tree People to Linda (who has published over 100 titles) but she liked it. I originally got the idea 20 years ago. There is still a long way to go, I have to create a story board, redo all the art work, but we have the financial backing. She is also keen to turn White Wall into a book to raise awareness about mental health issues amongst children.

It's been fraught preparing for this second book launch, Brick Lane Books has been very good to me, the only shop in London to stock all my books. It will be an evening of art, motherhood and madness on 5th Feb, 166 Brick Lane Book Shop from 7pm

Finally, I am excited to be showing my War on a Scroll Part 1 with the mental health patients at KAOS Brussels, it is the first in a series of 10 scrolls I am creating about war.

As for my other work I am busy creating my postcard series, so far done 250 and my oil portrait series of my children. Been blogging assiduously having numerous articles published in Huffpost, but I am becoming ambivalent about social media.

There is still a great deal of work that needs to go on this site, I have to archive my vast library of photos, organise all my writing, and update my art portfolio, but it's a mammoth task, well one step at a time I think is always best.

Pigment Explosion Newsletter update

Pigment Explosion — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The last couple of years have been hectic with the birth of my second child in 2013. I was also awarded an AIDF (Artists International Development Fund) Grant from the Arts Council and British Council in 2014 to complete an exciting scroll project in Bangladesh and Burma.

In March 2015 I was in Bangladesh and Burma completing the first phase of the project, undergoing the research part and meeting with local artists, writers and film makers. I have acquired enough material in order to create the scroll, which I hope to complete in 2016 with a view to showing it in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Burma in collaboration with the British Council in all three of these countries.

There was also a screening of my film White Wall at Pansodan Gallery in Yangon, followed by a talk and on 25th March 2015 I gave another talk at the British Council in Kuala Lumpur about my art and new book which deals with the subject of maternal mental illness.

Also, after years of stubborn resisitance I have started a blog: www.artmotherhoodandmadness@tumblr.com which has proved to be a good outlet for my brain, if not slightly addictive. Twitter is also proving to be a revelation, and by the end of 2015 I have made contact with whole network of people passionate about mental health. I also started a Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too facebook page and hope to continue my campaign to raise awareness about psychosis and postpartum disorders.

Thanks to an introduction from Alastair Campbell I am now blogging for the Huffington Post and have had over 20 articles published this year ranging from mental health to politics.

After the success of my mid-career retrospective at Rich Mix in March 2013, I returned for a second solo show in June 2015 to coincide with the publication of my new book 'Schizophrenices Can Be Good Mothers Too' published by Muswell Hill Press, Jan 2015.

The book is available now:

http://www.amazon.com/Schizophrenics-Good-Mothers-Muswell-Press/dp/1908995157

www.richmix.org.uk

During the course of the one-month exhibition at Rich Mix June 2015 Sanchita Islam showed four new scrolls, 120 postcards, sketches of mother and child, including photographic potraits created with Brussels based photographer Lieven van Meulder addressing representations of madness via portraiture.

There was also be a theatre performance consisting of poems, musings and excerpts from Sanchita Islam's new book 'Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too' publised in New York and London by Muswell Hill Press January 2015.

Sanchita hosted a debate with key psychiatrists working in the field of psychosis:Dr Bass, Dr Tim Read and Brussels based psychiatrist Dr Erik Thys to discuss art and psychosis and how creativity can be used as an alternative or in conjunction with medication.

I was also intereviewed in the Guardian and did other interviews for various online publications, which are listed in the Press page.

These last few months I have been working on my second War Scroll, the 1000 postcard series (230 completed so far) and 4 oil paintings. I also signed with Lollipop Gallery.

In January 2016, I will be presenting my work at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and an Asian publishing house, Oyez publishing have agreed to work with me on my first children's book: The Tree People.

On 5th Feb I will be having a book launch of 'Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too' from 7pm onwards at Brick Lane Book shop and on 17th Feb I will be presenting my War Scroll completed with patients at TrActor at KAOS in Brussels. I will also be showing photos, including the work of my colleague Lieven Van Meulder.

My hopes for 2016 are to continue with my mental health campaiging, blogging, writing, making my scrolls and art and publishing The Tree People.

Twitter@Q_Sanchita_Lam

Facebook: Sanchita Islam