A series of works exploring migration stories and the relationships between place, memory, attachment and dreams.

The horizon is far away

25 min documentary film (2015)

A short documentary about a group of asylum seekers living in the remains of an officially closed refugee camp on the Tunisia/Libyan border.

Choucha camp was established by the UNHCR to temporarily house those that were fleeing from Libya during 2011. In 2013 the camp was officially closed. Those who had been refused asylum, mostly men from sub-Saharan African countries who had previously sought shelter and work in Libya, were advised to return to their countries of origin. Many attempted to cross the Mediterranean sea reach Europe via Lampedusa, and the rest stayed living in the desert waiting for a solution. This is a film about being stateless and in-between, about how fantasy and dreams keep you alive.

The film was produced during an artist in residence project at Twiza Cultural Centre, Tunis

Waiting for a new Life

As part of an artist in residence project at BATARTLAB, (Batman, Turkey) in 2015, I worked with a group of Yazidi refugees who had recently fled from ISIS in Sinjar province in Iraq. They were living in an unregistered camp in Batman town centre and being supported by the local community in a disused building. My project stemmed from an apparent need for alternative forms of representation of what was dubbed the refugee ‘crisis’, to go beyond sensational images of suffering and sadness to show a more human perspective, of a mundane daily reality of people that were between one life and another that they were hoping would come for them. What struck me at the time was a sense of futility and powerlessness, of being held within a chaotic system that they knew little about, and yet could not make steps to move away from. In the meantime, all they could do was wait.

The photographs in this series are taken by the refugees themselves on disposable cameras that I distributed among residents, over the course of a few days at the camp. I asked them to take pictures of things that were important to them, family, friends, the place that they slept, and any other details or objects that gave them a sense of home. These are intimate images of family life, trying to hold onto a sense of 'home' in a place none of them wanted to be.

This work was presented at Dis/Placed Exhibition at Counterpoints Arts