In honor of Curaty's exhibition "Resilience", we asked our artists what resilience meant to them, and how they celebrated resilience. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1d_r3n4V3/ 

POLLY B. 

What does Resilience mean to you?

Resilience to me is evolution. It’s the ability to adapt to a situation and grow from it. Whether that comes in the form of a plant curling round to follow the sun, or humans drastically adapting their daily routine (as we are experiencing now). Resilience is survival and allows us to take major disturbances within our environment and overcome them.

How do you celebrate resilience? 

I celebrate resilience with nature’s ability to evolve to challenges that we throw at it. It’s the ability to adapt to thrive and survive. We as humans can learn a lot from this quality and have the chance to grow alongside nature instead of on top of it.

Maryam H. 

What does resilience mean to you? 

Resilience means the constant need to rebuild, adapt and evolve in the face of adversity. For me this often means the way I engage with my practice has to be in a constant mode of flux. Both from a practical standpoint of making under various conditions but also the importance of reflexivity.
This past year has been a whirlwind and can be described as bizarre at best. The creative community has rallied together and supported each other and countless causes globally. Their interpretation of resilience is generosity.

 

How do you celebrate resilience?

We’re often in the habit of glorifying fortitude. The best way to celebrate resilience is to highlight and celebrate the struggles in which the need to be resilient emerges from.

Emi T. 

What does resilience mean to you? 

Resilience to me defines an individual's ability to come out from despair stronger than ever, through sheer determination. A resilient person will not allow their failures to define them, but the journey of how they overcame those failures.

How do you celebrate resilience? 

It’s often difficult to quickly adapt, especially in a situation where no-one could have predicted. However, when I see resilience within people, it inspires me to share and celebrate their story. I believe celebrating resilience brings the community closer together, and makes you feel like you’re not alone in this.

 

Anna K. 

What does resilience mean to you? 

Resilience means a lot of things to me. For example, I am a kind of person who is very sensitive, emotional and ‘deep’ as they say. And I see those traits of character in myself and others as strength. If someone you see is crying, that is not a weakness. It is what they do post-crying is what counts. Do they pick themselves back together quickly and keep trying, no matter what? Do they help others? Do they cry because they felt something deeply? It is being able not to give up on humanity, on art, on love after all those traumas and difficulties is what resilience means to me.

How do you celebrate resilience? 

During Lockdown in London a lot of people felt anxious and scared. I did too at the start. I actually suffer from anxiety and depression. It comes and goes. However, I decided this time to flip the coin and use the Lockdown in my favour. I decided to see it as a period when I can lift any anxiety (because I literally didn’t have anywhere to be etc). I used to that time to do my ‘shadow work’, to paint, to meditate and if anything depict those difficult times in my practice. I sketched listening to various fast electronic music types which to me represent any traumatic experiences. Some works of mine came out on the dark side, but some actually happy and bright in colour. “They cannot lock me down” says one of my bigger mixed media pieces standing proudly at my studio.

 

Melissa H. 

 

 

 

What does resilience mean to you? 

For me, resilience means how we adapt and overcome difficulties in life. Although everyone has different resilience and we all deal with things in our own way, it is about how we cope with these experiences and control them.

How do you celebrate resilience? 

It can be very difficult to find balance in these uncertain times, but being resilient is so important and can help recover and regain the stability that we need. I try to celebrate the times that were made easier by believing it would get better, especially in lockdown.

 

Michal R. 

 

The last few months has taught me a lot about Resilience. For me Resilience means physical or emotional elasticity, the process of adapting to new, unforeseen circumstances which leads to personal growth.

Sometimes it's very challenging to accept reality as it is. Especially when we experience something that is unpleasant or worrying. Meditation has been a very powerful tool for me to help except things as they are and be more patient. This is very important for a painter, as the process of making a painting is a search, an endless search and letting go of ego, beliefs and truths is required. This think of letting go is only possible when one is flexible in the mind and the heart.

 Anca S. 

Resilience is allowing myself to feel vulnerable while remembering that vulnerability is infinite strength and indestructibility, for it is the willingness to be open to all that is happening in my life, allowing energies to flow through me, allowing one idea to transform into a new one, instead of remaining in a rigid interpretation dictated by a certain expectation.
The understanding that so-called reality is the echo of my own creation. A mirror reflecting back to me what thoughts, beliefs and feelings I have been holding onto.
It is like a puzzle... when I put all the pieces together, form a large picture, the only reason I get the large picture is because each and every puzzle piece has a unique shape.

Each life event is unique and to a certain extent unexpected, creating doorways to infinite possibilities... Resilience for me does not equate with being strong or with the ability to recover from harsh events... but with the acceptance and recognition that all events serve a purpose to a deeper understanding, all events no matter how I would label them (negative or positive) are happening for me and from me.
It is at the same time taking responsibility for my entire creation.

 

What does resilience mean to you? 

Share your thoughts with us!