Seeing the Unseen: Migraine, Nahid Shukralla
Four square digital paintings on black backgrounds depicting abstract visual phenomena associated with migraine aura. The animation cycles through numerous abstract aura forms with slow pulsating and drifting movements of luminous forms against dark backgrounds. Each painting contains a circular or oval central field with luminous geometric forms and coloured light patterns. One painting features concentric green rings radiating from a bright white centre. Another shows a glowing yellow and pink starburst with radiating beams. A third contains curved black bands crossing a gradient field of orange, purple and blue light. The fourth depicts a glowing pink central orb surrounded by concentric rings, with branching neon pink lines and bright nodes extending across the lower portion of the composition.
Title: Seeing the Unseen: Migraine
Artist: Nahid Shukralla
Date: 2020
Medium/Materials: Digital media (digital painting and animation)
Dimensions: Video: 00:06:00; four digital paintings printed on archival pigment prints on canvas, each measuring 45.72 cm x 45.72cm
Form/Genre: Animation
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Patient narrative; Migraine; Chronic pain; Medicalization
Artist Statement:
Seeing the Unseen: Migraine is an ongoing series of digital paintings and animations based on Nahid Shukralla’s lived experience of chronic migraine. Through this work, Shukralla translates neurological visual disturbances into visual form, creating images that reflect the shifting lights, distortions, and movement experienced during migraine episodes. All of the works are based on migraine auras that awaken her from sleep and are therefore rendered against dark backgrounds with a grey oval centre representing her visual field.
Shukralla has lived with migraine since childhood and now experiences chronic migraine. As a physician and board-certified pathologist, she turned to art as migraine increasingly limited her ability to practice medicine. Through digital painting and animation, Shukralla attempts to create a visual language for experiences that are often invisible and difficult to communicate. The series also functions as an evolving archive of documented migraine aura experiences, preserving visual neurological phenomena that are rarely recorded in such personal detail. To date, the project includes more than 200 digital representations of migraine aura experiences. The work may contribute to broader understanding of migraine and lived experience of neurological illness.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Created in response to Shukralla’s lived experience of chronic migraine and migraine aura. This ongoing series uses digital painting and animation to document and visualize neurological experiences that are often invisible and difficult to communicate.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Learn More:
Instagram @migraineart_bynahid