This is How Tired We Are. 2016
concrete, donated clothing, letterpress
Joondalup Invitation Art Awards [popular choice award]
These works address the Australian government’s hypocrisy towards asylum seekers. Despite championing ourselves as a nation that has ‘boundless plains to share’ our refugee policies hold people arbitrarily, for years at a time, at great detriment to their mental and physical health. In the last five years these polices have resulted in 21 deaths, three of which took place this year.
My research has focused on what is publically available information and what we actively choose to overlook. Through the media’s constant dehumanization of asylum seekers it has become increasingly acceptable to choose to not engage with the horrors of offshore detention. If you choose to look, the reality is harrowing.
The use of clothing re-instates the human presence absent throughout the reports. Earlier this year following the death of a Pakistani refugee, the refugee community on Manus Island sold their clothes in order to afford to repatriate his remains. The literal act of giving the shirt off ones’ own back shows the true generosity and humanity of these individuals. It begs the question, How do we respond?