Conceptual Art
Just the clothes on their backs: bear witnesslothes t.
In July 2019 I responded to a combined call from Edinburgh Printmakers and Cork Printmakers . I proposed a washing line to be hung in the mezzanine void at Edinburgh Printmakers. Pegged on this washing line panels of silk fluttering in the moving air. Full size images of clothing printed on the panels, on the clothing - images of migration.
This installation is a response to Warsan Shire’s poem Home. Warsan starts her poem with “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”. She concludes no-one leaves home unless ANYWHERE else is safer.
Many migrants travel with “just the clothes on their backs”. Imagine these clothes could talk – what could they tell us. This installation “bears witness” to what the clothes have seen. All hung on a washing line which itself is an image of home.
The images of migration have come from memories of iconic media images which I have remodelled with the help of my family – as rememberers, photographers and models.
Silk is diaphanous. The resultant images float in the air and are sometimes muted, by design, these are memories that are difficult to deal with, the viewer needs to approach the work and look more carefully to see the evidence.
My installation was accepted to be part of an exhibition at Cork Printmakers which has been delayed by Covid 19 and other circumstances, currently due for exhibition in 2021.
The images below are shown hanging up at Edinburgh Printmakers new home in Fountainbridge in the position they were designed for.
This installation is a response to Warsan Shire’s poem Home. Warsan starts her poem with “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”. She concludes no-one leaves home unless ANYWHERE else is safer.
Many migrants travel with “just the clothes on their backs”. Imagine these clothes could talk – what could they tell us. This installation “bears witness” to what the clothes have seen. All hung on a washing line which itself is an image of home.
The images of migration have come from memories of iconic media images which I have remodelled with the help of my family – as rememberers, photographers and models.
Silk is diaphanous. The resultant images float in the air and are sometimes muted, by design, these are memories that are difficult to deal with, the viewer needs to approach the work and look more carefully to see the evidence.
My installation was accepted to be part of an exhibition at Cork Printmakers which has been delayed by Covid 19 and other circumstances, currently due for exhibition in 2021.
The images below are shown hanging up at Edinburgh Printmakers new home in Fountainbridge in the position they were designed for.
Ladies cardigan :- Bears witness to the refugee camp on Lesbos. Drypoint on Silk
Boys tee shirt:- Bears witness to a Mexican father and child drowned trying to cross the Mexican border across a river. Drypoint on silk
The pants bear witness to “14 men between your legs” a quote from Warsan Shire’s poem and a signifier for the many migrants raped and abused on their journeys to safety.
The babygro bears witness to migrant babies experiencing capsized boats in the Mediterranean.
Man’s shirt :- Bears witness to October 2019 when 39 migrants died in the back of a refrigerated truck – a coffin lorry people laid flowers as tributes – 39 bouquets for 39 young lives. Drypoint printed on silk.
Discarded
I am an artist printmaker currently living in Edinburgh where I am a member of Edinburgh Printmakers.
When I was 21 my first proper job was as a primary school teacher in Brixton, at this time I lived in Waterloo. I later moved to Bradford to work in teacher education and then Edinburgh to work in special education.
At the start of the coronavirus crisis in the UK I very quickly became aware that BAME people in the NHS had unfeasibly high fatality rates. I subsequently discovered this was true for other frontline workers, e.g. bus drivers, care assistants and taxi drivers. Due to coronavirus Edinburgh Printmakers is closed, so I made the plates at home and printed them on my dining room table with a small die-cutting press.
When I was 21 my first proper job was as a primary school teacher in Brixton, at this time I lived in Waterloo. I later moved to Bradford to work in teacher education and then Edinburgh to work in special education.
At the start of the coronavirus crisis in the UK I very quickly became aware that BAME people in the NHS had unfeasibly high fatality rates. I subsequently discovered this was true for other frontline workers, e.g. bus drivers, care assistants and taxi drivers. Due to coronavirus Edinburgh Printmakers is closed, so I made the plates at home and printed them on my dining room table with a small die-cutting press.
