In Motion
2025.
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: L42cm xW30cm
There are moments when I move and it feels like something else is moving me. Not grace, not control something more primal. Ecstatic dance, they call it. But for me, it’s more like surrender.
My limbs twist and lean in ways I don’t understand. I don’t know where the pain lives, or why certain parts feel heavy. I don’t know why my shoulder dips, why my spine curves, why my feet resist the ground. My body is a stranger.
And yet, it’s mine.
This painting emerged from that tension between movement and mystery, between embodiment and estrangement. The central figure, rendered in deep brown and turquoise, stretches across the canvas in a dynamic pose, limbs exaggerated and alive. Behind it, ghostlike silhouettes in soft blues, greens, and lavender echo its motion, as if past selves or emotional shadows are dancing alongside.
The background is a warm, golden-brown field, grounding the cooler tones and giving the figures space to pulse and breathe. It feels rhythmic, almost musical, like the canvas itself is vibrating.
I painted this during a time when I felt disconnected from my own body. I was dancing, but not from joy—from necessity. From the need to feel something, to locate myself in the blur.
Each brushstroke became a gesture of curiosity. What does this movement mean? What is my body trying to say?
I still don’t have all the answers. But I’ve stopped demanding them.
Now, I let the dance happen. I let the stranger speak.
Because maybe the body isn’t meant to be fully known. Maybe it’s meant to be witnessed, felt, honoured even when it moves in ways that confuse me.
Esther Akello 