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The Migraine Art Competition Collection

The British Migraine Association ran a series of migraine art competitions in the 1980s with the intention to share people’s varied experiences of migraine. In the seven years that the competition ran, the Migraine Art Competition Collection was formed, comprising 545 unique, often striking works of art. Rada Vlatkovic, Collections Information Officer at Wellcome Collection, shares some images from the collection and reflects on her own experience of migraine.

Words by Rada Vlatkovic

  • In pictures
A detailed line drawing or human skull in white on a beige background. The skull's right socket is filled with an eyeball, painted in colour, and looking downwards. There are jagged multi-coloured zig-zag graphics in place of an eyebrow
Skull with right eye zigzag aura, 1980, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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In August 1980 the British Migraine Association launched its first Migraine Art competition. Competitors of all ages were invited to illustrate their own migraine experiences. As Peter Wilson, the founder of the British Migraine Association explained: “With so many millions of people afflicted by the phenomena of the six forms of visual disturbance which precede the classical migraine attack” the competition hopes to capture “just what young and old experience visually and mentally from this Earth-born inheritance which has visited man since earliest recorded history”. (Migraine Newsletter, August 1980)

Four white figures with large mask-like heads are at the centre of the painting. They have large almond-shaped eyes in blue, orange, yellow and green respectively, from left to right. Each has a different drawing in the crown of the head: a rough atomic line drawing, a multicoloured bran, several asterisk type stars and a blue scrbble on a multicoloured backround. To the left of the four figures is a floating mask head looking face-on at the viewer. It has red 'blood' flowing over it with droplets up to the almond shaped eyes. In the multicoloured and patterned background are small black 'devils' with raged wings, tails and one has a pitchfork.
Alien-like figures with migraine, 1980s, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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Migraine has a long history. Ancient Egyptian and Greek descriptions consistent with migraine describe the aura (sensory disturbances, usually visual) that can precede a migraine headache and the partial relief that occurs after vomiting. The condition still affects millions of people around the world. Although the exact cause is still unknown, recent medical research suggests that migraine is the result of abnormal activity affecting nerve signals, chemicals and blood vessels in the brain.

Drawing of a human head in profile shows different compartments in the brain labelled: depression, disorientation, isolation, distorted shapes, nauseous etc. Around the head are images related to external stimulii for light-induced pain and noise pain such as the sun, a bright light bulb, loud noises from a TV, a kettle whistling. Lines from these stimulii connect to hte different compartments in the brain via the eye and the ear.
Triggers and symptoms, 1987., Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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Migraine can also be triggered by environmental factors such as stress, lack of sleep, light and temperature, as well as biological factors such as low blood-sugar levels, alcohol and hormonal changes, including the menstrual cycle and menopause. Symptoms can appear or disappear at certain stages of life, such as adolescence or middle age. Migraine affects three times more women than men.

The right half of the image is a serene pale green landscape of trees and a flowing stream with rushes. Emerging from this in the centre of the painting is a wonan's face with an eye floating in the landscape and a nose and mouth forming form the trunk of a tree. The left of the painting is a graphic mattern of chequered circles and radiating lines in red, yellow, plack and grey.
Woman's face with landscape, checkerboard starburst and tunnel aura, 1983, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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Several different patterns of migraine symptoms have been identified by people. Most common is the “migraine with aura”, where there are warning signs, such as visual disturbances, just before the migraine begins. The warning signs generally come before the headache, which increases in intensity until nausea or vomiting occurs. The condition may last from one or two hours to several days, after which the person is left exhausted. In “migraine aura without headache” or “silent migraine”, the aura or other migraine symptoms are experienced, but the headache itself doesn’t develop.

A typical 1980s living room seen from the point of view of a person having a migraine aura. There is a tv on the right, a young mother with a toddler in her arms sits relaxed in an armchair, a small side table and potted plant behind her. Across the patterned carpet you can see the hands of the person having the aura as they look on. The scene is obscured by hazey white 'clouds' containing faint zigzags and patterns which partially cover the mother and tv and teh onlooker's hands.
Family life with aura, 1985, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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My own experiences of migraine began in my early teens. For me it starts with visual disturbance. I can’t see half of every object at which I look, which is a scary sensation. The pain comes later. My hand and part of my face are numb. If I’m at work, trying to be strong, I leave in haste, walking home, trying to concentrate. I feel like my shadow walks in front of me. If tablets work, I might avoid sickness and vomiting, but I’m not always so lucky. Pulling the blinds down and getting into bed, I feel safe. The pain is gone and the attack is over, and yet the effects linger in the body for several days, affecting my vision and cognitive ability. It is hard to focus. My mum had it. It is in the family. 

A head on the wide open mouth with bright red lips as if screaming. On the left side the head is skull-like and grey with a spiral instead of an eyeball. On the right sidethe head is yellow, an eyeball has come out of the socket and is connected to the head by just the optic nerve. The forehead on the right is covered in grey zig-zags, above this is yellow hair. The ear on the right of the head has been replaced by yellow symbols. Bright scribbles like electricity emerge from between the symbols and from behind the top of the head. The background is divided, pink with black scribbles behind the grey skull half of the head and deep purple behind the yellow half.
Migraine head, 1983, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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A fellow migraineur I know describes the onset of their migraine as an ache that “pulses in my temple, usually on my right side, signalling pain that will only worsen, creep through my eye socket and then brace my whole head in a vice, neck stiffening. The world becomes too bright, the glare of my computer screen too much for my eyes, my senses over-sensitised. Sounds become amplified, smells heightened, triggering nausea. I reach for codeine. After decades of living with migraines and trying preventative remedies, this opiate is the only relief to numb my senses, keep the menace at bay. Then I can wade through the day, work, still function.” (HD, 2022) 

Painting of a man sat in an armchair looking at a television. He looks angry, his hands clawed, his legs animated as he shouts "Oh NO! Not another". The television had been cut into four pieces by a spikey zigzag line taking up the right third of the image.
Oh NO! Not another! 1985, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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The worry about having a migraine attack is always present. The thought of getting a migraine overshadows the joy of planning trips and family events. People struggle with a life of uncertainty, not knowing when the attacks will strike and how they will cope. The unpredictability of migraine increases anxiety and leads to living lives in state of constant readiness.

Intensely cluttered and artwork in black line drawing, coloured in details. A man lies in bed and leans over to vomit into a bowl while clutching his head. Behind him are tins of food, fruit, eggs, a cocktail, chocolate, beverages and other food. The rest of the background, merging into the bedding is zigzags and patterns of wavy lines and other graphics. An ominous silouhetted figure leans in towards the bed behind him. The figure is surrounded by question marks. A lightbulbe shines on the floor next to the bowl.
Man being sick from bed, 1987, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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The Migraine Art Competition ran from 1980 until 1987, when the British Migraine Association was renamed Migraine Action. The resulting collection contains over 500 personal stories of people of all ages in the form of vivid, often intense images. Since the 1980s the collection has been exhibited internationally at both art galleries and academic conferences. In 1991 it was displayed at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Images of the paintings have been used to illustrate books about migraine and an award-winning documentary called ‘Out of My Head’. The writer A L Kennedy also discussed the collection in her BBC Radio 4 programme ‘A L Kennedy’s Migraine’.  

A woman's reflection looks out from a mirror at the viewre. The woman is waring a pink roll-neck jumper and her head rests against her left hand, just touching her short brown hair. The top third of the mirror is obscured by a strong multicoloured zigzag pattern across the image which just reaches the woman's forehead. Her right eye is blotted out by a bright white light that emerges from the zigzag pattern above. The woman's expression is resigned and unsmiling.
Woman in reflection with zigzag aura and white spot, 1981, Migraine Art Competition. Source: Wellcome Collection. © Wellcome Collection.
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In 2018 Migraine Action merged with the Migraine Trust and a new home for the competition artworks was sought. Simon Evans, Chief Executive of Migraine Action, was keen for the collection to perpetuate the original function of the competitions: to provide a visual narrative of migraine experiences. In an email exchange with Wellcome Collection he said, “I anticipate hosting at the Wellcome Collection would make them more widely available than we can with our limited resources.” With the planned digitisation of the archived collection in 2023, that’s just what we hope to do.

About the author

Black and white photograph of a woman with short brown hair looking directly at the camera and smiling. The background is a lawn and trees.

Rada Vlatkovic

Rada Vlatkovic is part of the Collections Information Team at Wellcome Collection, responsible for creating and publishing high-quality cataloguing metadata and improving the accessibility of our collections. She is a Mental Health First Aider at Wellcome.