Anthology of Displacement
2019, Ireland
Anthology of Displacement
Text, paper, glass vessels, gold leaf
Installation, size variable
This work tells the stories of people who live life on the border - be that the edge of a geography, an identity, or even time. For this series I invited personal stories from migrants and newcomers who have crossed physical and mental borders. Each text sculpture tells the story of an individual who feels they live life in between two places. Some have moved by choice and economic migration, and some have been forced to move due to war or other circumstances outside of their control. Although there is a big difference between these two types of migration, both can give insight into the intangible, unspoken forces of home, borders, place, duality and otherness. In particular it was important to find out the human side of their story - in contrast to impersonal reports about migration.
My research platform www.humanarchiveproject.com is a portal for the public to anonymously submit their stories. I also interviewed individuals, and took part in meetings of asylum seekers. (Some who are living in the controversial Irish Direct Provision scheme, and others who have now naturalised and integrated into society.) Many refugees expressed a sense of imprisonment when their rights were lost in their home countries, and in many cases more so since arriving in Ireland.
Time, memory and borders were strong themes in many of the testimonies I collected, so I suspended the words upon ticking clock mechanisms. Within the glass vessel artworks called An anthology of Displacement, 2019, each tries to synchronise with its neighbour, but is forever separated by the invisible glass border.
The vessels I use were inspired by the alchemistic and olfactory world of Arabic perfumes, called minyak attar (or 'essential oil' in Malay language), which are used in the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca - another kind of migration. Migrants may describe their transitions as a pilgrimage away from misfortune and towards hope.
This artwork was made as part of the New Voices of Ireland exhibition, entitled CULTURAL, URBAN MEMORY – TRANSITION, TEMPORALITY, TRANSCULTURES, which spotlights work from 8 artists from migrant, culturally diverse backgrounds as well as local artists who work with migrants and other marginalised individuals or communities.
Transition, temporality and transcultures are essential parts of population movements of the twenty-first century. So are the constantly growing cities that have become cultural melting pots. However, the voices of migrants, the main agents of the transition, transculturality and temporality are rarely heard, and if so, it happens mainly in the context of ethnographic and anthropological approaches, placing them at the margins of history.
This artwork was exhibited as an installation alongside another work called ‘We Are All Connected’, with a sound artwork containing the voices of individuals telling their stories. Read more about this exhibition here.
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