Aislinn Finnegan: My Inspiration

As someone who was born and raised in Zimbabwe, surrounded by buzzing cultures and colours, vibrant fabrics and music and dynamic artwork and artists, the lack of recognition and accessible representation of the vast creative achievements rooted in the continent, have often delivered much personal frustration.

For decades, the visual language and creative resources of Africa have been side-lined by mainstream creative industries and have often been reduced to nothing more than a source of aesthetic inspiration for many western creative powerhouses.

However, over the past couple decades, I have personally seen a growth in the representation of creatives that are from or have heritage in various African countries. These creatives increasingly operate with a creative autonomy that rejects the appropriation and exploitation of their work and instead, celebrates the beauty and complexities of the cultures they are rooted in. It is from these creatives that I draw my day to day inspiration, of which Aislinn Finnegan stands at the forefront.

Aislinn Finnegan is a young Northern-Irish and Zambian illustrator, whose artwork takes sophisticated and nuanced approaches to concepts of race, identity and femininity.

In each illustration Finnegan explores a different topic and places the black woman at the centre of the narrative, beautifully contrasting various textures and colours, drawn from Finnegan’s Zambian roots, to create powerful artworks with an important message.

Finnegan’s art breathes dark and complex histories that transcend into the celebration and empowerment of black women in all their forms. This combination of the beauty of the illustrations and the message behind them, goes to show the extraordinary depth of Finnegan’s work.

Pieces such as self-care, mother and child or change the curriculum showing how Finnegan truly harnesses the phrase, a picture, or in this case an illustration, is worth a thousand words.

As a non-western woman living in London, I have often felt the pressure of needing to conform to, and express certain standards and cultures that are not my own. However, my exposure to artists such as Finnegan, whose illustrations harness and celebrate the very things that are often rejected, under-represented or appropriated by mainstream creative industries has encouraged my own cultural self-confidence and expression.

This is something I am reminded of and encouraged to do every day when I see one of Finnegan’s pieces hanging on my wall and goes to show the power that emerging young creatives can have.

Take a look at Aislinn’s art here @aislinn.art or here.

By Sophie Tendai Christiaens

As a recent masters graduate in law and development at SOAS university, Sophie is currently pursuing a career in ethical trade and development whilst enjoying freelance writing and reading and exploring different music and arts.