That Thing Around My Neck 2, Metamorphosis

Her first major print project, That Thing Around My Neck 2, Metamorphosis, is an artist’s story of connecting generational histories, understanding her mental health, and exploring identity. The work itself is covered in gestures embodying this labor of understanding oneself.

That Thing Around My Neck 2, Metamorphosis, 2022, 20 x 23 in, Ify Chiejina

That Thing Around My Neck 2, 2016, mixed media (acrylic paint, tea, coffee, crayon, watercolor, and pen ink on mixed media paper)

Born and raised in Queens, Nigerian American artist, Ifeatuanya ‘Ify’ Chiejina explores the complexities of growing up in an African household in Western society. In her artistic practice, portraits depict emotions and memories in ever-developing narratives about family, transformation, and self-discovery. The artist’s inspiration comes from images from her family’s photo album, visions of Nigeria, and memories of fabric. Using herself as the central subject, she constructs an image that allows audiences to engage and experience the catharsis of art. The somber portrait is Chiejina’s reaction to her first experience with hospitalization for her mental health. 

“Getting to recreate this piece as a print,” Chiejina tells us, “working with others, and sharing that story, has transformed it into something collaborative and therapeutic almost.” 

Examining the piece’s carefully rendered face, you may find yourself captivated by the vulnerability there. The face holds a sense of immobility as if stuck in its distress, unable to escape its mind or circumstances. The work's rawness emphasizes this vulnerability with its raw-edged paper and thick, haphazard lines. The lines are like reminders of our mortality. Indications of human experience that mark the work like scars or memories that engrave certain experiences and feelings into our being. The layered printing techniques represent a vastness of experience and recognize mental health as a communal issue as well as a personal one. Thickly laid hands grasp at Chiejina’s chest, resembling a sort of self-embrace, a gesture viewers might feel drawn to mimic. This protective gesture reminds us of what it means to feel present but provokes somber revelations of our own internal turmoil. 

Headdress collage, unique to each print.

I find myself not wanting to change or remove the markings that others might want to erase because, for me, it represents the emotional impact of the work. I was so excited to see that the printing process could still capture those lines. - Ify Chiejina

Weaving together portrait and pattern, Chiejina delves deeper into these notions of connectedness. She uses cultural iconography — like African fabrics and headdresses — to contextualize her story. Clothed in bright colors and patterns, the work reveals a more sincere reality within the pattern-making. Incorporating various shapes, lines, and colors within her pattern, Chiejina creates reproductions of African prints that reconnect her with her cultural heritage and her memories of her mother’s work as a fashion designer. The decorative pattern draws on childhood memories of singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” with her now departed mother. Each star communicates Chiejina’s themes of grief, depression, and reconciliation and immerses viewers into the pattern’s expressive concepts of connection. 

The artist signing prints at our studio (2022).

The breadth of the piece offers a multi-layered examination of identity. While its first impression may seem somber, engaging with the work reveals deeper sensibilities energized by childhood memories and the desire to understand oneself. Through her own acute personal experience, Chiejina creates a visual language for contextualizing mental health that is as deeply universal as it is personal. In it, art’s function as an expression of oneself without words becomes a powerful tool for making empathy and well-being accessible.

“At the ten-year mark of my practice, I have this desire to be more conscious of the work I’m presenting, to plant seeds with my work. Sometimes this desire to present something is intentional, but other times it's very subconscious. Just through exchanges and conversations about my work, I am enamored by the thoughts and feelings that come about and how powerful they can be for the viewer and for me.” - Ify Chiejina

That Thing Around My Neck 2, Metamorphosis

2022, Lithograph/Serigraph/Relief/Collage,

20 x 23 in with irregular edges