Yahoo Lifestyle Video: Sheila Atim on the art that inspires her
"Art is... the stuff in your head, out in the world," Sheila Atim tells us, in the latest episode of our new video franchise, The Art That Inspires Me. As we talk, she's sitting in front of one of her favourite pieces – a painting named 'At What Cost' by the Nigerian artist Tonye Ekine – in his London studio.
Her fascination with the artist is a relatively new one, she explains. "I first met Tonye at his first solo exhibition called 'One of Us', a couple of months ago," she tells us. "This was the first painting that caught my eye immediately as I walked through the door, before I'd even said hello to anybody."
The British-Ugandan actress and writer is one of six trailblazing women who featured in the 2024 issue of Bazaar Art – alongside Bianca Jagger and Golda Rosheuvel – photographed in front of artworks that profoundly resonate with them.
In 'At What Cost', Ekine depicts a figure wearing a historic Nigerian Bronze Ife mask. "Tonye has expressed that he is so interested in understanding, not just the mask, and the person wearing the mask, but the many identities that they may be trying to conceal or create by using the mask, and that's something that we all do in our everyday lives," says Atim. "Tonye's work is rooted in his curiosity to understand people, to understand culture, heritage and identity, and I think that really comes across in all of his paintings."
Atim is also particularly drawn to Ekine's use of colour – or lack thereof. "His work is very bold, very expressive," she says. "[This painting] is a lot more sparse in terms of colour... There's some degree of blank space which is still waiting to be filled in, but [the character] feels okay with that. That really spoke to me.
"I feel like I've reached a point in my life and my career where I'm very proud of the things I've managed to achieve, but there's also so much more for me to discover about myself, and so much space into which I can expand, which I'm excited about. This painting really reflected that back at me in a way that made me feel really seen."
Watch the full video interview with Atim, above.
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