The artwork you see is called ‘Rage’.
Where did the idea for the painting come from?
Rudy Loewe held a workshop and one participant explained that their rage was like a person in flames.
They are angry because someone with mental health problems needs help, care and support.
Yet when the police arrive, they think the Black person is a threat, and form a barrier.
You see this and feel emotional, right? You feel anger and fear… because you can’t help.
Invitation from artist Rudy Loewe
You witness the way those around you are treated as threat when they need care. You learn to make yourself small, turn your rage inwards and tend to your wounds. It takes years for you to meet healers who say, “But of course racism. Of course, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism, ableism, structural violence.” Of course, of course, of course. It’s so obvious.
A Rage whirls within you and they tell you that it does not exist, that it need not exist, that you do not exist. There is nothing wrong with you unless you are a threat, in which case you are locked up and/or medicated ‘for your own good’. But that Rage, left restricted and ignored, seeps into your bloodstream like a poison that must be released.