Awaken Festival – Kuwait – Blanche illustrates

Below is a rich picture made to convey en.v‘s new Theory of Change to their community and stakeholders.

This amazing arts and social justice festival over several days in Kuwait City was incredible to attend and witness. The artwork had lots of interaction at the festival and had great feedback from the team:

“Through her illustrations, Blanche Ellis skilfully captured the highlights and breakthroughs as well as the subtle remarks and unspoken exchanges that took place in each of the five training sessions we hosted at our AWAKEN festival. Her artistic ability combined with her depth and grasp of theoretical concepts allowed her to both record and reinterpret the surrounding dialogue in real time, which she did succinctly and beautifully.”
Layan Al Dabt – Team Member – en.v

I captured two days of talks in a multimedia space where the speakers gave interactive talks, working through poetry, discussions, games and metaphors with the festivals visitors to address local issues; gender and equality, tradition and modernity, migrants and works rights and many others.

The reflections were intensely personal as well as communal.

I captured the talks on black paper, maintaining the theatrical atmosphere of the sessions.

More recently, I’ve worked with en.v’s founder on digital graphic recordings related to themes of sustainability & inclusivity for his contribution to the first XP Music Conference in Saudi Arabia (below).

“With a strong focus on social causes and impactful initiatives, time and time again, Blanche has demonstrated a unique talent to navigate complex discussions we’ve shared online or in-person and translate them into engaging and meaningful visuals for audiences to explore, inquire, and learn from.”
Zahed Sultan – Multimedia Artist, Founder (en.v, COMMUN)