You and I (I & II)

Two paintings with collaged elements to be displayed as a pair in this configuration.

"You & I (I & II) were made with historical images from the Sickle Cell Society's archives and newsletters as well as images collected from friends who have sickle cell; they were made to encourage the significance of creating comfortable atmospheres of support for SCD patients during the episodes of pain, which they go through in many occasions on many levels. In the diptych is a couple supporting each other through an episode of pain. The woman is looking between the guy and the person looking at her. She is communicating between two people at the same time. I didn't want the idea of pain to be off-putting; on the contrary, the audience should be able to look at it. I was particularly inspired by one image of a scar. By seeing someone subjected to pain having extra pain, it was essential to turn it into something hopeful. The idea was to replicate the scar in the work by tearing the images both intentionally and unintentionally. I was destroying images to build new ones. Sickle cell is an invisible condition, and the pain associated with SCD is equally hidden. Therefore, art has often been a means to express and visualise the challenges for people living with sickle cell."-- Larry Amponsah's description of the work from the article in Visual griot: Bringing history of SCD to the present by Alinta Sara and Larry Amponsah.

[London]: Larry Amponsah, 2021.

2 paintings : acrylic, with collage ; sheets 70 x 100 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the Sickle Cell Society archive which inspired these paintings, reference SA/SCS https://wellcomecollection.org/works/erermr9

Wellcome Collection holds the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre archive, reference SA/SCT https://wellcomecollection.org/works/e7r46wqv

Complemented by (work): Visual griot : bringing history of SCD to the present. (b33317239)

Creative Commons Attribution - Non-Commercial CC BY-NC 4.0

Wellcome Collection 3314984i

Exhibited in "Our journey our story: history and memory of sickle cell anaemia in Britain 1950-2020" at Black Cultural Archives, London, 21 May – 30 July 2021.

These paintings are accompanied by the article "Visual griot: Bringing history of SCD to the present"by Alinta Sara and Larry Amponsah commissioned by Wellcome Collection in 2023.

Title provided by the artist.