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Zeinab Ajasa
She/Her/Hers
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I have been illustrating and writing for the majority of my life. Birth ties to America, Nigeria and England inform my work and have helped me come to terms with not having a concrete place to call home. Visually, drawings and writing are often merged into a hybrid to create rich and layered artworks. Poetically, I border the line between matter-of-fact and nonsensical, usually finding a happy middle with stream-of-consciousness. Illustratively, I deconstruct the rules of comics and make panelless, compositional stories using experimental typography. I am inspired by the world around me and the people that I choose to have in my life. The smallest most insignificant thing could catch my eye, and I’ll write or draw about it using type to express the feeling. Life is so rich and full, that even the smallest things, like a ladybird crawling on a window screen, is worth writing and creating about.
Sketchbook
I’m sharing this work because I believe that it's really valuable to have discourse about different art practices and as a black, femme, queer, neurodivergent person with ADHD and depression, I would like to see more people like myself in the art world. If that has to start with my own work, then so be it.
There seems to be this idea, at least from what I've experienced, that there is one way to create. If you're not doing it that one way, then you're doing it wrong, which never made much sense to me; I want that to change.
So many people stop making art because they are trying to strive towards unrealistic and unsustainable standards of art making, and that makes me deeply sad. I feel like the art community needs to back away from the idea that it’s plausible for everyone to make art everyday (even if it’s just a little). I actually feel less inclined to make anything at all due to that pressure.
I make my best work when I really take my time with it. Churning things out isn’t a strategy that works for me. I like to consume art at a high quantity before I create it. There continues to be a lack of focus on 'the artistic process' in the art community. We very rarely see an artist's in-progress work, which is a shame because seeing how an artist got from A to B is crucial for any beginner.
March 2020
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April 2020 - *420 Month*
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May 2020
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June 2020
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July 2020
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August 2020 - *Birthday Month*
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September 2020
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October 2020
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November 2020
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December 2020
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January 2021
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February 2021 - *Black History Month*
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March 2021 - *Women's History Month*
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About the Guild
The RISD Museum Guild is a group of undergraduate students from local colleges and universities who work toward representation, inclusion, and advocacy for student voices in the museum space. We typically plan and facilitate public programs that allow artists from local colleges to share their processes. During the pandemic, the RISD Museum Guild has had to adjust our modes of working collaboratively. Like you, we squished our faces into a shifting mosaic of Zoom rectangles, with members calling in from Providence, New Orleans, New Delhi, London, and more. Unravel: An Anti-Exhibition has grown out of this shared virtual space.
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