Having announced her Nucleus Exhibition, taking place at Island Bikes on March 27th, UD meets visual artist, Araba Ackon aka Rabba Wisdom…
What’s your name and creative discipline? My name is Araba Ackon but I also go by Rabba Wisdom and I’m a visual artist, but not strictly painting.
How long have you been an artist? I’ve been an artist damn near my whole life but I think for the past five years I’ve been taking it seriously or professionally at least.
What’s your favourite colour & texture? This is a question I ask everybody. LOL! I would have to say my favourite colour is orange and my favourite texture would probably be…. I’m trying to think of words that explain what I’m thinking about. But my favourite texture would probably have to be something that is smooth with bumps, but then you add slime on top.
What is your favourite medium to create with? It’s got to be found mediums, found pencils, found paint, whether that’s found pieces of fabric or found pieces of old thrown away paint, old spray paint cans & old canvases. Yeah, I think found things are my favourite things because they have gotten me so far in my career, the majority of the pieces I have produced are based off found materials. There’s a lot more variety when you’re bound to the tools that you have, so I think that would be my favourite, but I think my next favourite would be a sculptural element like foam or something like that.
Who and/or what inspires you? There’s a couple things, an artist that inspires me is definitely David Choe. Over his lifetime as an artist I feel like I can relate to him a lot, his style is something that, well not his style, moresay his philosophy behind his work, is something to this day that still helps me as an artist and has inspired me. I also really like Jamie Hewlett and Alberto Mielgo. Their cartoon work over the years have been just kind of ingrained in my work, as well as bold symbolistic wartime iconography.
Other people who inspire me are definitely my friends. I’m around a majority of musicians and seeing the way that they attack their creative businesses as well as how they just show up and perform, it’s like music kind of flows from them. It’s an inspiring thing for me because it is outside of the realm of visual art and it’s something I can learn from, grow through and also create whilst it’s happening. So it’s a massive inspiration to me and my work.
Lastly, the people in the homeless community inspire me, especially the artists I have met on the streets over the years. I have bought pieces from homeless artists on the street and I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of those artists. It’s interesting to see what they’ve taught me and how it has inspired the way I create, a lot of which is through the use of scrap materials. I have actually sat down and had conversations with these artists and they’ve shown me how they’ve created certain pieces. I like to say that it’s like having street teachers.
When’s your next exhibition? It is on the 27th of March from 7pm to 10pm and has been curated by UD in collaboration with Island Bikes. Tickets are FREE from UDtickets.com.
What can we expect? I kind of just want people to come and relax into what I like to call the nucleus of my mind and my creativity. From this exhibition you can expect an atmosphere of energy, I really want to encapsulate people in my raw emotions. You can expect a jumpy vibe with music supplied by the amazing Katalyssst.
I want the art work and the music to export people into a place where they can see my most vulnerable parts as an artist, whilst being in a space where colour is bombarding them. It’s almost like you’re walking through the innermost parts of my creative mind and the things that have really been the stepping stones that have propelled me to the artist I am today.
Where can we find more of your art? You can find more of my art on Instagram HERE or on the streets of London.
Do you have anything more you want to add? Being an artist from South London, at the start of my career graffiti was what I dabbled in the most… I could go out alone at 3am and forget the world and sketch wherever, make my local neighbourhood look like my bedroom or to make my spaces feel like a departure from the home I knew. Over the years the walls and ceilings of the spaces I’ve occupied eventually turn into caves of my work. As an artist with a long history in the graffiti world, it really has been an interesting journey.
I feel as though my friends (shout out to Da Community), are the very people that had helped inspire my last art cave. They have helped me the most to stay on track and remember the goals that I do have – and the people I have around me are immensely talented. They remind me that there is a way that we can connect, there is a way that we can produce and there is a way that we can feel through our things.
That sense of family, community and home is something that I haven’t been able to experience before in my life. When I do go into isolation, I find it hard to create. When I get to see my friends I am reminded that I am just a girl from South London that is blessed enough to be here and create alongside some of the best creatives I have ever met in my whole life. That’s what really keeps me going and that’s the only reason why the art keeps flowing and shall keep flowing. Amen!
Reserve a FREE ticket for the Nucleus Exhibiton HERE.
