It is hard to understand or interpret people’s behaviors, what triggers them to act or respond the way they do. If not careful, one would easily misjudge someone.

When it comes to mental health, experts emphasise that it includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. For instance, it affects how we think, feel, and act.

For a long time, talented pen artist Gislain Mugisha, has observed his interactions with different people and has noticed that most of the times, he understood how they behaved after fathoming the reason behind their actions and how the life they live has shaped their behavior.

He realised that it was impossible for him to know what drives people’s actions, as some people don’t open up about themselves, which makes it hard or impossible to comprehend their behavior. Mugisha refers to this as the cause of the escalating rate of mental health issues in this modern society.

It’s for this reason that he has organised a mental health exhibition, Signs & Symptoms for two weeks that is intended at helping people understand the root cause of someone’s behavior which can’t be observed by mere eyes.

He says that what people tend to see are the outcomes of different inner thoughts. Which is why in his exhibition, he will expound on certain thoughts and manners and differentiate the gap between what the person thinks and what the society observes. Perhaps later, think about them by observing and learning how to fill that gap.

This is his first solo exhibition; taking place from February to 19 the same month. He has 12 displayed works at Café Envision, Gishushu.

According to the youngster, the title of the exhibition came while pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, and often heard signs and symptoms in most of his course units.

"I came across these words several times and after knowing their difference, I noticed that I could describe the theme of my body of work. A sign is an objective, observable phenomenon that can be identified by another person while a symptom is a subjective experience that cannot be identified by anyone else, actually signs are what society sees and symptoms are the inner thoughts,” he stresses.

Having conducted research on what causes mental health issues in modern society and had a conversation with two students who are pursuing their Bachelor’s degree in psychology, he discovered that the common problem was that people felt unheard.

This is why Mugisha, for two years, has been working on pieces that he expects would encourage society to take time to listen and help others to open up since they can’t heal without speaking up.

He wants to use his art as a contribution to modern society as he believes he would reach more people with his aptitude. Creating art pieces on an important topic would help raise awareness on the problem.