Living Canvas: Migration Stories at Stryx Gallery
The first chapter of Living Canvas unfolded at Stryx Gallery, Birmingham a powerful evening of art, sound, and shared humanity. The theme, Migration Stories, invited participants and performers to explore what it means to move, to belong, and to rebuild.
At its heart, Living Canvas is about turning lived experience into collaborative art. During this session, audience stories about migration and displacement inspired live creations in painting, music, and spoken word.
Visual artist Isi Bhaks painted in real time, translating raw emotion and testimony into bold colour and texture on canvas.
Poet Kohinoor gave voice to the experiences shared, performing original spoken word pieces drawn from those stories, layered over a haunting, minimalist soundtrack composed by Sandra Amartey.
Musician Jai Eric brought an intimate performance of his acoustic song Agatha, while Lauretta Okolo engineered the live soundscape that carried the entire performance.
Vocalist Caroline Alfred improvised with Temple T, creating spontaneous melodies that wove through the rhythm and colour of the room.
As the night unfolded, something profound happened stories became sounds, feelings became brushstrokes. The collaboration didn’t end in that moment; it continued after.
The painting created by Isi Bhaks was taken away for completion, while new songs and a short documentary inspired by the event are currently in development.
These works will form part of The Living Canvas Exhibition later this year a showcase of art created from lived experience, featuring music, paintings, and multimedia storytelling.
For many in the room, Migration Stories was more than a performance. It was a space of reflection an invitation to be seen and heard.
Through art, we found that the journey of migration is not only about where you come from or where you go it’s about how your story lives within others.
Stay tuned as The Living Canvas continues to travel, bringing communities together through creativity, conversation, and colour.
