Reckoning with Refugeedom (Journeys Festival International Portsmouth)

About

Fragments shares the hidden voice of refugees in history and offers us the chance to reflect on their stories in relation to experiences today.

This new work has been created in response to historical petitions, letters and personal correspondence from 1919 - 1975 found in archives around the world. The work offers a snapshot into the lives and personal experiences of refugees and deals with the frustration that, at this point in time, we are unable to find closure within these stories. Through exploring this archival material, the artist and researchers have been left with many unanswered questions that they would have liked to ask the refugees directly.

“In the end” Mei Yuk Wong, the artist, said “I have to admit that all these elements are only fragments. We won’t be able to see the whole picture. The images and audio that visitors encounter are broken pieces”.

The fragmented nature of these stories is reflected in the installation through printed textiles embedded with transferred images from research and online materials including photographs of archives, letters, papers, notes, newspaper cuttings, and forms. The sound work which fills the space splinters this material further creating a multi-sensory environment. The audience is invited to reflect on the experience of the researcher in the archive searching for threads to follow.

The work responds to archive material from around the world that has been discovered by Reckoning with Refugeedom, a research project led by The University of Manchester, Department of History.

​

An ArtReach commission in partnership with The University of Manchester and funded by The Arts And Humanities Research Council.