ACCLAIMED Jersey rap-poet Christian Foley featured in BBC One’s hit TV series Extraordinary Portraits this week.
It pairs people with unusual stories with a portrait artist, who captures them on canvas.
Mr Foley, a ‘spoken-word educator’ who works in schools and has a particular interest in the creativity of children excluded from mainstream education, was partnered with the Wigan-based artist Laura Quinn Harris.
A contributor to exhibitions including the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Annual Exhibition, her previous sitters include actor Sir Ian McKellen, biologist Richard Dawkins, writer and actor Armando Iannucci and opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
At the unveiling of his portrait to family members – the culmination of the BBC programme – an emotional Mr Foley described the experience of seeing himself captured in the portrait as ‘quite overwhelming’.
‘You don’t really reflect on your life or what you do because it’s just what you do, but it’s very touching and I’m sure that the children who are watching this who I work with [will be] excited too,’ he said.
In the preparation of the portrait, Ms Harris visited schools where Mr Foley was working with students in a bid to ‘shine a light on the wonderful work he does’, and the two creative artists discussed the importance of the arts in dealing with some of the challenges and pressures faced by young people.
In discussion, Mr Foley said: ‘I think that for young men we are told that strength is a certain thing. For example, when I was younger, strength was like at the fairground when you had to punch one of them electronic punch bags and you’d get a score at the end and it would say, you know, “your score is 500”. And that becomes a metaphor for all young men really of where we position ourselves amongst each other.
‘Real strength is the strength to admit when you are feeling weak, because that’s far harder to do than punch a punch bag.
‘Poetry and particularly hip-hop in my life has been like a means to articulate how I am feeling and therefore to make sense of emotion and to make sense of what’s going on around me in the world. And I think, for me, it’s been life-saving.
‘I had a boy who was 11, today unprompted, bring up the phrase “mental health”.
‘When I was 11, I didn’t know what mental health was. I think as a teacher that if you can do that for one child in your class of 30, that’s a successful day,’ he said.
Shortlisted for the Jerwood Poetry Prize and identified by Sky Arts as being among the top 20 promising young artists in the UK, Mr Foley’s performances have gone viral on the internet and made him a regular on television and radio, amassing millions of views and features across British and international press.
He works in schools and referral units in East London, as a poet in residence, and is the editor of eight poetry volumes written with children between the ages of four and 18.
He is also an ambassador for mental health and co-founder of Mentality, a group of artists tackling issues around masculinity and encouraging communication. Their single Talk was championed by The Samaritans charity.
Mr Foley’s appearance on Extraordinary Portraits was screened on Monday, [25 July] and is also available to watch or download on BBC iPlayer.
