More than 18-percent of children under the age of 18 suffer from an anxiety disorder and many may not know how to deal with the feelings they’re experiencing, according to the ADAA.
At 19 years old, Willow Smith has taken exploring anxious feelings to a new level with a new art event called The Anxiety for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has suffered with anxiety since she was a child. She found meditation, nature, and reading Buddhist texts to be helpful in managing her anxiety, the LA Times reports.
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“Every moment is precious. And I think everyone has a fear of just not knowing what’s going to happen in the future, not knowing if you’re on the right path, not knowing if you’re making the right choices,” she told the Los Angeles Times when speaking with the paper about the project.
Willow Smith Uses Art to Imitate Life, Specifically Anxiety
For the project, she is locking herself in a box for 24 hours, along with her best friend Tyler Coal. The duo will be exploring eight stages of anxiety: paranoia, rage, sadness, numbness, euphoria, strong interest, compassion and acceptance. Each of the stages will last for three hours and Willow and Tyler do not plan to speak to each other during that time.
Visitors can view Willow and Tyler through a glass wall for 15 minutes each. The other three walls of the box will be made of out canvas and give Willow and Tyler a platform to write affirmations and their feelings.
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“We understand this is a very sensitive subject,” she told the paper. “And we don’t want to be like, ‘Our experience is the experience.’ This is just us expressing our personal experience with this.”
After the performance piece concludes, Willow and Tyler will release their album, “The Anxiety.”