On 635 Suurman Street, Section 6, Hammanskraal

My work in brain health focuses on developing brain skills that we need to live and love better. As part of that, I explore the potential of different art forms to help or transform us. Art has the ability to change perception (the way we view and interpret what we see) and with this change reality. I was reminded of this on a visit to a gallery in Johannesburg. The work of Patrick Rulore at the Bag Factory Artists’ studio (with Molebatsi Art Consulting) is a beautiful and profound documentation of what South Africa is going through right now during our frequent power cuts. His work appeared to guide and offer hope, as to how we move beyond despair, beyond this crisis where we feel like we’re on an edge all the time. It reveals, to me at least, what we don’t see in headlines and news stories by focusing on people in Hammanskraal, close to Pretoria.

Is this our guide as we move through this moment of despair?

Patrick Rulore’s painting shows how people are coping with prolonged power cuts and their sources of light and love. Light is found in the old and modern, in candles and mobile devices, and our families or communities. There is an emphasis on relationships, across generations, between fathers and sons, between families, and strangers. Is this our guide as we move through this moment of despair? That we find light in the darkness, in our relationships, and perhaps that the solutions come from nurturing our relationships and communities.

My interpretation is in part, shaped by the work I do. Feeling loved and supported, can actually help memory and mood by increasing plasticity in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is important for both and links the two. Our communities, that are intergenerational, are a resource. In many parts of the world, they are facing an epidemic of loneliness, which has been linked to a host of physical and mental illnesses, including dementia. Our relationships, our families, and our communities are a valuable resource that we need to protect and nurture. These will help us through this period and perhaps with this support, we can find solutions as we have done before.

In this moment of despair and frustration, Patrick Rulore has managed to offer insight into our strength.

Art has been used for millennia in many traditions and cultures across the world to comfort, to communicate, and to guide. It continues to do so in many ways. In his book, Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain, Jonathan Fineberg says, ‘One of the outstanding features of visual thinking is that it fosters the re-ordering of experience in a way that reveals connections hidden or dismissed by verbal logic.’ While not ignoring darkness, the exhibition also highlights love and light, and in this moment of despair and frustration, Patrick Rulore has managed to offer insight into our strength and in doing this, to offer hope.

Think better. Feel better. Love and live better with better brain health.

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